Anastasia Vassos
Sappho in Translation
I shall kiss
becomes
I shall love
according to the translator
who thinks she knows
better than Sappho.
I prefer the bitter
weapon of kissing—
the mouth the charged
organ of love’s longing.
And speaking
of hunger—
how does the sun
manage to slice
the air
to create shadow?
The third line in "Sappho in Translation" is taken from Sappho’s fragment 88a; from Anne Carson’s translation
“If Not, Winter” published by Vintage Books, Random House.
Anastasia Vassos is a Greek-American poet writing and teaching in Boston, Massachusetts. Her work has appeared most recently, or is forthcoming in Haibun Today, Blast Furnace Press, Comstock Review, Gravel Mag, and RHINO, among other publications. Her poem "Tinos, August 2012" was Poem of the Moment on masspoetry.org. Anastasia was a general contributor at the Breadloaf Writers Conference and she is a reader for Lily Poetry Review. She is a long-distance cyclist.
Return to November 2019 Edition
I shall kiss
becomes
I shall love
according to the translator
who thinks she knows
better than Sappho.
I prefer the bitter
weapon of kissing—
the mouth the charged
organ of love’s longing.
And speaking
of hunger—
how does the sun
manage to slice
the air
to create shadow?
The third line in "Sappho in Translation" is taken from Sappho’s fragment 88a; from Anne Carson’s translation
“If Not, Winter” published by Vintage Books, Random House.
Anastasia Vassos is a Greek-American poet writing and teaching in Boston, Massachusetts. Her work has appeared most recently, or is forthcoming in Haibun Today, Blast Furnace Press, Comstock Review, Gravel Mag, and RHINO, among other publications. Her poem "Tinos, August 2012" was Poem of the Moment on masspoetry.org. Anastasia was a general contributor at the Breadloaf Writers Conference and she is a reader for Lily Poetry Review. She is a long-distance cyclist.
Return to November 2019 Edition