Stung with Love: Poems and Fragments (Penguin Classics) Paperback – October 27, 2009

As Carol Ann Duffy, Britain's poet laureate says, "In these wonderful new translations by Aaron Poochigian we hear the voice of a great and enduring poet. Sappho." I couldn't agree more.I have reread Poochigian's translation several times and I find them more and more beautiful each time through. I was surprised and delighted by the rhythms and his choice of words. Many of the poems struck me as sensual and moving. Sappho must have had an extraordinarily beautiful mind, but I never appreciated her poems in translation before now. If you don't read Ancient Greek, but you want to know what all the fuss is about, this is a very good translation to choose.Preface:Carol Ann Duffy has a lot of insight into Sappho. It is worth buying the book just to read what she says.The Introduction:Probably the weakest part of the whole book, but still filled with useful information and a good list of suggested reading. I would find this book very helpful if I had to write an essay on Sappho.The Notes:I learned more about Sappho from Poochigian's notes than I did in the class I took on Greek Lyric Poetry. I don't usually read notes, but these held my attention.The Translation:Poochigian's translation is accurate enough that you get a real sense of what the Greek says. I have read four of her poems in the original Greek; this translation captured both the sense and the beauty of the original.Poochigian is a wonderful poet. He made good choices metrically in this translation. Normally, I am not a fan of translations into verse, but this one has a beauty all its own. I will probably read it out loud many times in the years to come because I love the way the words sound.Although I don't agree with every choice of words he made, Poochigian has produced one of the most readable and skillful translations I have ever read. It is a work of art in itself and there is far more to admire than to forgive in this translation.In another review I read for this book someone complained that this translation does not provide the original Greek on the facing page, but I did not find this to be a problem since it is very easy to look up the original Greek free on-line if you are interested in comparing it to the translation. I dare say that anyone who could do a meaningful comparison already owns Sappho in Greek.Another review I read said that Poochigian uses absurdly long and obscure words. To be fair, however, I think that that reviewer should have mentioned that Poochigian always defines the obscure or difficult vocabulary he uses. Certainly, I did not have to look anything up.This translation also gave me a sense of why Sappho has been loved and respected by many prominent figures- including Plato- since ancient times. Some of the translations were so beautiful I was moved to tears and wanted to read them over and over again. I have never experienced this with any other translation of Sappho.As Carol Ann Duffy says at the end of her preface, "Aaron Poochigian's translations retain Sappho's intense sense of being singingly alive and of being on the side of youth, and loveliness, and love." I am glad I got the chance to read them.

The Introduction is superb. The author’s translation attempts to flow with the ancient metrical styles and in our English vocabulary this is always challenging. The translation is heartfelt, classy, beautiful and respectful. As a poet myself I relate very closely to the great poetess who is so much more than that, which is why she is referred to as the tenth muse. I have several translations of Sappho and this one is essential! Please enjoy.

The scraps, remnants, and extracts of Sappho's work seem over analyzed to the extent of obscuring the essence of her poetry.

My review is on the quality of the book delivered. It came undamaged and all pages are intact. I’m really happy with my purchase, and look forward to reading!

Good read

In my opinion, this is one of the best Sappho translations you can get your hands on. The words maintain the tenderness that Sappho is hallmark to, while adapting the fragments to convey their meaning beautifully. The context given for the fragments also elevates the experience greatly.

transaction was as planned and announcedThe Penguinbook is very welle conceived as it gives an excellent description of the live of Sappho and the the society she lived in.The "Further reading " is handy as are the comments which preceed every poem or fragment thereof.

Book Review--Julie Stoner (in "Ablemuse", Winter 2009)What, no Sapphic stanzas? The foxy Sappho didn't always use them herself--no one-trick hedgehog, she--but where are the famous stanzas named in her honor? Aaron P.'s translation does not attempt them. No, instead he reaches for something bolder:namely, Sappho's other renowned inventions--pçctis and plectrum.Music is the essence of Sappho's magic, argues Aaron P., but her quantitative (length-based) meter changes when English gives it stress-based percussion. Witness this review, with its weakened line-ends. English must demote to a long-short combowhat, in Sappho's Greek, would be mainly long-long, bold and emphatic:- u - x - u u - u - -- u - x - u u - u - -- u - x - u u - u - -- u u - uAaron further grieves that, while ancient cultures instantly inferred from the Sapphic stanza this is something songlike, our own thinks this is prosy and awkward. Still, free-verse translations are not the answer: shunning formal elements Sappho valued, these "betray her poems by their very nature."(Thus he condemns them.)What to do, then? Aaron invokes the song-forms English-speakers know from their own tradition. This is something songlike, indeed. Prepare for aural enchantment:Abanthis, please pick up your lyre,Praise Gongyla. Your need to singFlutters about you in the air--You gorgeous thing.--"Abanthis, please pick up your lyre," stanza 1Iambs, standing in for the Sapphic template, dance through three tetrameter lines, one half-line. Rhyme preserves the emphasis Sappho gave her lyrical line-ends:Because my tongue is shattered. GauzyFlame runs radiating underMy skin: all that I see is hazy,My ears all thunder.Sweat comes quickly, and a shiverVibrates my frame. I am more sallowThan grass, and suffer such a feverAs death should follow.--"That fellow strikes me as god's double," stanzas 3 and 4On the whole, I find his approach successful, though his frequent metrical substitutions paired with off-rhymes (stomach/come back, and even dalliance/battalions) sometimes raise my eyebrows. The choice of diction feels contemporary, with few exceptions. (Who, this day and age, says bedizened? Must we dance with the Webster's?)Subtly bedizened Aphrodite,Deathless daughter of Zeus, Wile-weaver,I beg you, Empress, do not smite meWith anguish and fever[intervening text omitted by reviewer]Come to me now. Drive off this brutalDistress. Accomplish what my prideDemands. Come, please, and in this battleStand at my side.--"Subtly bedizened Aphrodite," stanzas 1 and 7Wonder how these excerpts have fared with others? Here's the way Anne Carson presents them ('02, Knopf) in If Not, Winter, although I'll skip the Greek she puts facing:]I bid you singof Gongyla, Abanthis, taking upyour lyre as (now again) longingfloats around you,you beauty--Sappho Fragment 22, first complete stanza plus two words***no: tongue breaks and thinfire is racing under skinand in eyes no sight and drummingfills earsand cold sweat holds me and shakinggrips me all, greener than grassI am and dead--or almostI seem to me.--Sappho Fragment 31, stanzas 3 and 4***Deathless Aphrodite of the spangled mind,child of Zeus, who twists lures, I beg youdo not break with hard pains,O lady, my heart[intervening text omitted by reviewer]Come to me now: loose me from hardcare and all my heart longsto accomplish, accomplish. Yoube my ally.--Sappho Fragment 1, stanzas 1 and 7Anne's concern for simply transmitting extant text is why her lines have opposing Greek, and why so many pages contain such random fragments as these three:]]right here]](now again)]]for]--Sappho Fragment 83 (entire)makeup bag--Sappho Fragment 179 (entire)celery--Sappho Fragment 191 (entire)Aaron's goal, instead, is to give the reader pleasure. String too small to be saved is absent. Further, he's reorganized songs by topic, not just by number. Notes (which are detailed, and at times, amusing) face each fragment, rather than lurk as endnotes. Though without the numbers, it's hard to find old favorite pieces,Aaron P.'s achievement in this translation stands. The graceful music of Sappho's pçctis, plucked by rhyme as if by a skillful plectrum, drowns my objections. "Stung with Love", the subtitle Aaron gives his new translation, comes from the thrilling piece that German scholars found in '04. Another reason to buy this.