Sappho, Revisited

At the last Gather, I read one of Sappho's poems. Why Sappho? During the first season of the L Word, Jenny said how she was inspired by writer extraordinaire Anne Carson. Carson took a stab at translating the fragments of Sappho's texts in If Not: Winter.

Sappho has come to symbolize the lesbian community both literally and figuratively. However, I feel like we don't know much about her. As Carson writes, Sappho lived on the island of Lesbos around 630 b.c. She was a musical genius, composed 9 books of lyrics, and only one of her poems has survived; all the rest are fragments. Here is one of my favorites...enjoy!

stars around the beautiful moon
hide back their luminous form
whenever all full she shines
on the earth