Oh, you are fierce and wild. How far you throw,

While like some spear — no household thing —

I lay among my kin, and heard you sing.

Hurled far now, where I am, I do not know.

Searched for, I'mone whom none can bring.

My sisters think of me; they sit and weave.

Steps fill the house with domesticity.

But I'mfar off. There's nothing I can give

them, as alone, I shiver like a plea

because she burns (it is my life that she —

That goddess glowing in her myths — must live).

Sappho an Eranna

Unruh will ich über dich bringen,

schwingen will ich dich, umrankter Stab.

Wie das Sterben will ich dich durchdringen

und dich weitergeben wie das Grab

an das Alles: allen diesen Dingen.