Note 19 — SAPPHO TO PHAON.[1]
Reading edition
Ruffhead observes, that this line is superior to the original,
Aspice, quam sit in hoc multa litura loco;
which he thinks flat and languid: but the simplicity of the appeal to the blot on her paper is admirable, and should be only mentioned as a fact. The imitator has destroyed the whole beauty of the line, by a quaint antithesis, and a laboured arrangement of words, which are not natural in affliction. Scrope's translation again excels Pope's:
My constant falling tears the paper stain, And my weak hand, etc.—Bowles.