Fragment #94

#94

I simply want to be dead

Weeping she left me, fled

With many tears and said

          Oh, how badly things have turned out for us

Sappho, I swear, against my will

I leave but I love him, yes, still,

His remembrance leaves a chill

          In my being and will remain thus

And I answered her: Rejoice, go

And remember me, for you know

How we cherished you, I bestow

          My blessings on your journey, be glad

Stay, I pleaded but if not, I want

To remind you, from the very font

Of my being, our love will ever haunt

          Me, remind me of the beautiful times we had

I remember you for many crowns of violets

And roses, I have many laments and regrets

Carved in the wind are our silhouettes

          When you were at my side you put on the wreath of love

We will recall me and many woven garlands

Made of flowers and delicate filigreed bands

As we sang and danced on the shore’s golden sands

          As you put them around your soft throat and sang thereof

My memories live on and with sweet oils

And costly herbs grown in Greek soils

You anointed yourself, your glorious strands in coils

          These fragrances flow through my reveries

You came to me and on a soft bed

All my fears and frustrations had fled

Performed love-making as if we were wed

          You would let loose your longing and desire

And neither any of the sacred shrines nor any

In this holy place nor oracles nor horns of plenty

Was there from which we were absent and many

          Revelations, auguries, visions of sacred fire

The seers can’t foresee, this tragedy befallen on thine

No grove of almonds, no dance among the pine,

A song with no sound, no grapes upon the vine,

            Bare the trees, time does freeze, what gods to appease