Sappho Translation

http://www.personal.psu.edu/kmh5091/Sappho%20Translation.htm

Firtsly, I extremely enjoyed this assignment. I enjoy writing lyrics for songs (I play bass and sing some in a band back at home) and this assignment was pretty easy for me seeing as writing meaningful words is a hobby for me. It was interesting to see all the translations for the Sappho Poem. Never before did I think that a poem or song or anything could have the same themes and meanings but still be so different. After reading the different translations it was obvious the format that needed to be followed. Most were 4 stanzas long and each stanza usually had it's own function in the telling of an either ecstatic of tragic tale. It was fun to see what I could come up with while still keeping my poem in the style of the other Sappho translations. It was interesting to work with the three figures of God, the beloved and the viewer of the beloved into a singular peice of writing. Also, before reading the translations and writing my poem I thought there was no way anyone could include all the figures, feelings and symbols we had to use in one poem. I was wrong, and found out quickly that a beautifully written poem can still be full with all these things.

My first stanza represents god-like figure that is embracing the beauty of this woman he himself has created. Instead of writing of a man who had the features of God, I tried to have known that in this poem I was in fact referencing God, who is enthralled with the beauty of the woman. In the second stanza we begin to see what the beauty of this amazing woman does to the "viewer" as we see just what he thinks of her. In the third stanza, the man begins to question if he'll ever be able to be with this woman and actually doubts it at all as he begins to lose all hope. In the end of the poem the reader gets the notion that the pain of not having the woman to the man is so much he is actually dying inside. I chose not to have the man actually die because all though I wanted my poem to be tragic, I didn't want it to be that tragic.

In conclusion, the poem assignment was a fun one that I enjoyed writing. I got to experiment with different emotions, senses, and symbols. I had never written anything this sensual and the process was one that brought up some interesting feelings within myself.