—— POEM OF THE DAY#每日英文诗#
A Hymn To Venus Poem by Sappho (Greece)萨福（约前630年～约前560年），古希腊女抒情诗人，一生写过不少情诗、婚歌、颂神诗、铭辞等

A Hymn To Venus
Rating: ★2.9
♡
O Venus, beauty of the skies,
To whom a thousand temples rise,
Gaily false in gentle smiles,
Full of love-perplexing wiles;
O goddess, from my heart remove
The wasting cares and pains of love.

If ever thou hast kindly heard
A song in soft distress preferred,
Propitious to my tuneful vow,
A gentle goddess, hear me now.
Descend, thou bright immortal guest,
In all thy radiant charms confessed.

Thou once didst leave almighty Jove
And all the golden roofs above:
The car thy wanton sparrows drew,
Hovering in air they lightly flew;
As to my bower they winged their way
I saw their quivering pinions play.

The birds dismissed (while you remain)
Bore back their empty car again:
Then you, with looks divinely mild,
In every heavenly feature smiled,
And asked what new complaints I made,
And why I called you to my aid?

What frenzy in my bosom raged,
And by what cure to be assuaged?
What gentle youth I would allure,
Whom in my artful toils secure?
Who does thy tender heart subdue,
Tell me, my Sappho, tell me who?

Though now he shuns thy longing arms,
He soon shall court thy slighted charms;
Though now thy offerings he despise,
He soon to thee shall sacrifice;
Though now he freezes, he soon shall burn,
And be thy victim in his turn.

Celestial visitant, once more
Thy needful presence I implore.
In pity come, and ease my grief,
Bring my distempered soul relief,
Favour thy suppliant's hidden fires,
And give me all my heart desires.

—— COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Mahtab Bangalee 26 February 2020 excellent Hymn To Venus- Celestial visitant, once more Thy needful presence I implore. In pity come, and ease my grief, Bring my distempered soul relief, Favour thy suppliant's hidden fires, And give me all my heart desires. /// praiseworthy Hymn on the goddess of beauty Venus/// truly enjoyable
Chinedu Dike 21 October 2019 Well expressed thoughts and feelings. An insightful work of art..........................................................................
Deborah Taylor-French 03 February 2019 I am looking for the translater's name. Where do you put them on works in translation?
MadMax 28 June 2018 Truly a lesbo icon. Absolute homosexual mad lad.👌👌
Sylvaonyema Uba 19 November 2017 Poem built on aesthetic beauty. Good style and good delivery. Sylva.
Very good m8 19 November 2017 Very good lyric for a song
Subhas Chandra Chakra 19 November 2017 Invoking the divine through these lines of a lovely poem. Great sharing sir.
Rajnish Manga 19 November 2017 The poem reflects many faces of longing and love for the beloved. A divine invocation. Thanks. Though now he shuns thy longing arms, He soon shall court thy slighted charms; In pity come, and ease my grief, Bring my distempered soul relief,
Lorraine Margueritte Gasrel Black 19 August 2014 i had no idea that poetry rhymed back in Sappho's day so this poem answers a timeless question; which came first prose or rhyme? at any rate beautiful poem still timeless and timely after all these centuries...
* Sunprincess * 06 June 2014 ...............truly love this rhyming poem.....a joy to read....
Patti Masterman 14 October 2011 Sappho, where did you have your portrait done, it is very unusual looking? (smile)

—— Sappho Biography
The only contemporary source which refers to Sappho's life is her own body of poetry, and scholars are skeptical of biographical readings of it. Later biographical traditions, from which all more detailed accounts derive, have also been cast into doubt. An Oxyrhynchus papyrus from around AD 200 and the Suda agree that Sappho had a mother called Cleïs and a daughter by the same name.

Two preserved fragments of Sappho's poetry refer to a Cleïs. In fragment 98, Sappho addresses Cleïs, saying that she has no way of obtaining a decorated headband for her. Fragment 132 reads in full: "I have a beautiful child who looks like golden flowers, my darling Cleis, for whom I would not (take) all Lydia or lovely..." These fragments have often been interpreted as referring to Sappho's daughter or as confirming that Sappho had a daughter with this name.

But even if a biographic reading of the verses is accepted, this is not certain. Cleïs is referred to in fragment 132 with the Greek word pais, which can as easily indicate a slave or any young person as an offspring. It is possible that these verses or others like them were misunderstood by ancient writers, leading to the biographical tradition which has come down to us.

Fragment 102 has its speaker address a "sweet mother", sometimes taken as an indication that Sappho began to write poetry while her mother was still alive. The name of Sappho's father is widely given as Scamandronymus, he is not referred to in any of the surviving fragments. In his Heroides, Ovid has Sappho lament that, "Six birthdays of mine had passed when the bones of my parent, gathered from the pyre, drank before their time my tears."

Ovid may have based this on a poem by Sappho no longer extant. Sappho was reported to have three brothers; Erigyius (or Eurygius), Larichus and Charaxus. The Oxyrhynchus papyrus says that Charaxus was the eldest but that Sappho was more fond of the young Larichus. According to Athenaeus, Sappho often praised Larichus for pouring wine in the town hall of Mytilene, an office held by boys of the best families.

This indication that Sappho was born into an aristocratic family is consistent with the sometimes rarefied environments which her verses record. A story given by Herodotus and later by Strabo, Athenaeus, Ovid and the Suda, tells of a relation between Charaxus and the Egyptian courtesan Rhodopis.

Herodotus, the oldest source of the story, reports that Charaxus ransomed Rhodopis for a large sum and that after he returned to Mitylene, Sappho scolded him in verse. Strabo, writing some 400 years later, adds that Charaxus was trading with Lesbian wine and that Sappho called Rhodopis Doricha. Athenaeus, another 200 years later, calls the courtesan Doricha and maintains that Herodotus had her confused with Rhodopis, another woman altogether.

He also cites an epigram by Posidippus (3rd c. BC) which refers to Doricha and Sappho. Based on this story, scholars have speculated that references to a Doricha may have been found in Sappho's poems. None of the extant fragments have this name in full but fragments 7 and 15 are often restored to include it.

Joel Lidov has criticized this restoration, arguing that the Doricha story is not helpful in restoring any fragment by Sappho and that its origins lie in the work of Cratinus or another of Herodotus' comic contemporaries. The Suda is alone in claiming that Sappho was married to a "very wealthy man called Cercylas, who traded from Andros" and that he was Cleïs' father. This tradition may have been invented by the comic poets as a witticism, as the name of the purported husband means "prick from the Isle of Man." http://t.cn/AXVExQmr