I have this scary hyper focus that comes and goes during the seasons. When it takes over, I can’t do anything else until I finish the project.
I had been planning on writing a releitura of Sappho. I love the Portuguese word releitura. Nothing in English gets close to its mellifluousness, perhaps a rewondering.
I don’t speak Ancient Greek, not yet. I’m still studying the basics of Modern Greek and it fascinates me. I could intend to, one day, work on my own Sappho translation, but let’s intend that later. For now, I rely on other translators’ job. I read a whole bunch of them.
I have now a pile of those books — one of them, my old copy of the only translation in Portuguese — and I downloaded the ones I couldn’t find available for purchase. I read them all, especially the Mary Barnard one, over and over again. And I came to the conclusion that we, mere contemporary mortals, won’t ever understand the magnificence of Sappho. But, as the dreamer I am, I can wonder.
This is how it started:
But it ended up becoming something else.
The Front Matter
Title: ...and time came Subtitle: Perspective Rewritings of Sappho # Dedication: To all the women who exist outside of time. # Quote: "There is no place for grief in a house which serves the muse." - Sappho. # Prologue: in all time, contained or flustered, let there be love
The First Poems:
I thought of writing enough for a chapbook. I ended up writing enough for a whole book. Might change it later. Dismiss some. Might change the subtitle later for Rewonderings of Sappho. It is still writing itself in the ethers. But the original imprint will be there, before the Epilogue, already written:
time came that colours and love stories are no more than a parchment carried away by the culture of daylight but time is still to come when if you undress your skin, the good and the beautiful will sang a duet within you time will come that no love must wait the rising of the moon to happen until then let the muse sing let the muse dance let the muse fuse with you whisper the lines and lovers forgotten in another time
But the most joyous moment for me, was trying to draw an idea of Sappho.
What if the Moon has always desired The feet of a Muse, the Flag of a Venus Sapphos’ Fragments in the few hours Of its whole history; The vision is female · add another petal In the grapefruit
Thank you for reading!
Love,
A