Last Tuesday, Stefanie over at So Many Books reviewed If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho, translated by Anne Carson and I immediately placed a hold on it at the library. I’ve come across bits of Sappho before, scattered in random texts, and have always been intrigued, meaning to pick up a full volume devoted to her. Here, finally, was my chance.
As Carson tell us in the introduction, “of the nine books of lyrics Sappho is said to have composed, one poem has survived complete. All the rest are fragments” (p. ix). The fragments as they appear here range from almost complete verses to only one or two words. It’s the shortest fragments that are perhaps the most intriguing, the briefest phrases that have no context and which tempt you to imagine the story around them.
It’s a beautiful collection: romantic, nostalgic, thoughtful…Rather than attempt to analyse them here, I’ll leave you with a few of my favourites. May you spend your Sunday as I have mine, dreaming about ‘many and beautiful things.’
24A
you will remember
for we in our youth
did these things
yes many and beautiful things
36
I long and seek after
54
having come from heaven wrapped in a purple cloak
120
but I am not someone who likes to wound
rather I have a quiet mind
125
I used to weave crowns
147
someone will remember us
I say
even in another time
The Captive Reader 
Oh I am so glad you liked the book! I really liked #120 as well. I still have the book on my desk from the library with my little page markers in it. I intend to go through it an copy out my favorites so I can have them on hand when I need some additional sustenance 🙂
Thank you so much for bringing my attention to it! It was the perfect weekend read.
Oh, wow. These fragments are lovely. “I used to weave crowns”: I don’t know how something so simple can be so haunting.
It really catches the imagination, doesn’t it? That phrase in particular, but there are so many others equally intriguing within the volume.
These are lovely fragments – and really motivate me to pick it up myself. thanks so much for sharing
Hannah
Hi Hannah! I’d definitely recommend picking it up – it would be the perfect bedside reading!
[…] more akin to the great Sappho’s that drifts and values the majestic and the poetic “having come from heaven wrapped in a purple cloak” also seen in the beautiful trade-pieces of an indigenous people’s purple-colored […]
[…] “aquiline” or “athletic.” If they were spotty or even chubby, I gave them some good counsel wrapped in a purple cloth, and bid them on their way. If I had been ever confronted by a Fool, he was a banker. He had […]