the diversity of queer women's poetic experience: love poems: Sappho (girl meets girl)

[alexconall]

Once there was a girl; once there was a girl. Women, both, really. Her name was Lien; her name was Michelle. After Lien met Michelle, she copied out this poem and gave it to Michelle.


Fragment 31
Sappho tr. Anne Carson

He seems to me equal to gods that man
whoever he is who opposite you
sits and listens close
    to your sweet speaking

and lovely laughing—oh it
puts the heart in my chest on wings
for when I look at you, even a moment, no speaking
    is left in me

no: tongue breaks and thin
fire is rushing under skin
and in eyes no sight and drumming
    fills ears

and cold sweat holds me and shaking
grips me all, greener than grass
I am and dead—or almost
    I seem to me.

But all is to be dared, because even a person of poverty
[...]


Sappho. The most readily recognized queer female poet in the world. Not, probably, the first—that honor may go to Enheduanna, the first poet whose name we know. But the most recognizable name among queer female poets, and Sappho 31 may be her best-known poem.

All is to be dared, Sappho wrote. So Lien dared. But the rest of the poem, unless the last stanza of Catullus 51 is an accurate translation (unlikely), is lost.


Source: If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho, Anne Carson