TO ATTHIS (After the Manuscript of Sappho now in Berlin)

Atthis, far from me and dear Mnasidika,

Dwells in Sardis;

Many times she was near us

So that we lived life well

Like the far-famed goddess

Whom above all things music delighted.

And now she is first among the Lydian women

As the mighty sun, the rose-fingered moon,

Beside the great stars.

And the light fades from the bitter sea

And in like manner from the rich-blossoming earth;

And the dew is shed upon the flowers,

Rose and soft meadow-sweet

And many-coloured melilote.

Many things told are remembered of sterile Atthis.

I yearn to behold thy delicate soul

To satiate my desire. . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Richard Aldington

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