If Not, Winter: Fragments of SapphoMy rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a very fun read, with facing pages of Aeolic Greek and English translation. It took a bit to get used to how she organized the translations to reflect missing text as well as the “feel” of discovered papyrus, but after a dozen pages or so, it just faded into the background.

I really enjoyed fragments 16 (on Helen), 31 (the classic piece where Sappho describes her love of a woman), 34 (such beautiful phrasing), 44 (Andromache comes to Troy to marry Hector), 44Aa (Artemis securing her place as an eternal virgin), 48 (on meeting a lover), and 50 (the beauty of good). I also loved fragment 148: “wealth without virtue is no harmless neighbor / but a mixture of both attains the height of happiness”.

I always enjoy reading facing pages of text in two languages. It’s fun, it’s educational, and it sometimes gets you back to the original feeling one might have experienced upon hearing or seeing these ancient works. I enjoyed picking out familiar Greek words, learning new ones, and even recognizing the different spellings between Classical vs. Aeolic words (e.g. rosy-fingered, dawn, slender, and the use of the digamma). I read this while keeping a Classical Greek dictionary and another translation of Sappho (Aaron Poochigian, 2015) at my side.

Like most ancient works, so much of Sappho is lost, but what remains is still so enticing and exciting. Delve in, you won’t regret it.