Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

  • Apple
  • Android
  • Windows Phone
  • Android

To get the free app, enter your email address or mobile phone number.
Download to your computer
Kindle Cloud Reader

Poems and Fragments

by
Sappho (Author)
› Visit Amazon's Sappho Page
Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
See search results for this author
Are you an author? Learn about Author Central
Sappho (Author),
Stanley Lombardo (Translator)
› Visit Amazon's Stanley Lombardo Page
Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
See search results for this author
Are you an author? Learn about Author Central
Stanley Lombardo (Translator), Pamela Gordon (Introduction)
4.7 out of 5 stars 10 customer reviews
ISBN-13: 978-0872205918
ISBN-10: 0872205916
Why is ISBN important?
ISBN
This bar-code number lets you verify that you're getting exactly the right version or edition of a book. The 13-digit and 10-digit formats both work.
Scan an ISBN with your phone
Use the Amazon App to scan ISBNs and compare prices.
Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon

Sorry, there was a problem.

There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. Please try again.

Sorry, there was a problem.

List unavailable.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest
Buy new
$9.46
Only 8 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
Want it Saturday, April 16? Order within and choose Saturday Delivery at checkout. Details
List Price: $11.00 Save: $1.54 (14%)
20 New from $8.58
FREE Shipping on orders with at least $25 of books.
Qty:1
Poems and Fragments has been added to your Cart
Ship to:
Select a shipping address:
To see addresses, please
or
Please enter a valid US zip code.
or
More Buying Choices
20 New from $8.58 32 Used from $0.01
52 used & new from $0.01
See All Buying Options
Free Two-Day Shipping for College Students with Amazon Student Free%20Two-Day%20Shipping%20for%20College%20Students%20with%20Amazon%20Student

Glory Over Everything
April's Book with Buzz
"Glory Over Everything" by Kathleen Grissom. Heartbroken and with nothing to lose, Jamie embarks on a trip to a North Carolina plantation where Pan is being held with a former Tall Oakes slave named Sukey. Though they have help from those in the Underground Railroad, not all of them will make it out alive. See more
$9.46 FREE Shipping on orders with at least $25 of books. Only 8 left in stock (more on the way). Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Frequently Bought Together

  • Poems and Fragments
  • +
  • Oresteia
Total price: $22.46
Buy the selected items together

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.
Back
  1. Oresteia
    Aeschylus
    4.2 out of 5 stars 22
    Paperback
    $13.00 Prime
  2. Plato Symposium (Hackett Classics)
    Plato
    4.0 out of 5 stars 37
    Paperback
    $9.32 Prime
  3. The Metamorphoses of Ovid
    Ovid
    4.6 out of 5 stars 25
    Paperback
    $16.60 Prime
  4. Other Selves: Philosophers on Friendship
    Michael Pakaluk
    4.3 out of 5 stars 6
    Paperback
    $17.00 Prime
  5. The Aeneid (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
    Virgil
    4.0 out of 5 stars 56
    Paperback
    $12.56 Prime
  6. Genesis: Translation and Commentary
    Robert Alter
    4.2 out of 5 stars 55
    Paperback
    $12.80 Prime
Next
NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE

Product Details

  • Series: Hackett Classics
  • Paperback: 96 pages
  • Publisher: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. (March 15, 2002)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0872205916
  • ISBN-13: 978-0872205918
  • Product Dimensions: 0.5 x 5.5 x 8.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #409,386 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsShining and Resplendent Sappho...
By Ryan Kouroukis on October 3, 2008
Format: Paperback
These translations of Sappho are for me the most beautiful I've ever encountered...

Lombardo presents each fragment on its own page, and presents them Thematically (in other words, not in order). He has used ALL of the long and shorter fragments.

In the Introduction he says that he did not want to use every single fragment because some of them are only one word and thus incomprehensible for poetic purposes (which I also agree)...so in total he presents over 90 of the fragments in the most beautiful and ravishing renditions I've ever seen!

These may be Lombardo's most beautiful translations he's done for Hackett Publishing!
Comment 12 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsRemnants of Sappho
By Larry Benjamin on June 13, 2015
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
Of all poets, ancient and modern, Sappho may be the one with the greatest difference between the height of her reputation and the paucity of her oeuvre. Believed to have filled nine volumes in antiquity, Sappho's surviving work consists of only one complete poem, several partial poems, and many fragments, some of only a few words. The facts of her life are so ambiguous so as to allow every age to recreate the "historical Sappho" in its own image. And the reader, inevitably, approaches Sappho with their own expectations.

What people have always responded to - and despite anything else, what Sappho's reputation is built on - is the intensity of her emotional responses to others, whether in love, lust, jealousy, or admiration. Her primary subject is other people and the feelings they engender. Lombardo's translation masterfully captures this intensity in an accessible and clear style. This volume also includes introductory essays describing the treatment and discovery of Sappho's work, and an exploration of her sexuality, along with the sources of each poem and fragment presented.

All that's missing are footnotes or a glossary explaining the various names used - I recognized "Aphrodite," but not "Thyone," "Pierian," "Cypris," "Dorikha" - are these simply names of characters or people the poet is addressing, or do they have some cultural significance? It's easy enough to look them up, but having all of the information in one place would be convenient, not to mention having Prof. Lombardo's own explanation.

Since Lombardo's translation came out, new writings of Sappho have been discovered and published; undoubtedly more material will come to light in the future, however, until then this selection can serve as an outstanding introduction to this well-known and important poet.
Comment 3 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsPriceless
By Joe Hart on October 9, 2011
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
Don't expect whole poems (there's only one) or much coherence (all phrases, fragments, single whole or partial sentences, single words) - but either Sappho or her translator comes across as very smooth and beautiful. I like it very much and am glad I have it. Sappho antedates Keats' dictum not to write confessionals, an injunction which the sheep and poetasters continue still to obey. "Raise high the roofbeam, carpenter" - recognize that? Title of a once well-known short story by Salinger. Was stunned to find it's an exact quote from Sappho. BTW, the analytical/historical preface is as good as the poems.
Comment 3 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 stars"The moon has set..."
By Jan Dierckx on June 12, 2004
Format: Paperback
In Antiquity decent women were supposed to work in the kitchen and to raise their children, nothing more, but there were exceptions. More or less 150 years after Homer's Iliad, Sappho lived on the island of Lesbos, west off the coast of what is Turkey today.. (She went in exile for a short period due to political upheavel).
Sappho was already famous in Antiquity. Plato called her the tenth Muze and someone said her poetry was "as refreshing as a morning breeze".
Some of the best poems of Sappho are those that describe her loneliness.
(#62)
"But if you are my friend,
Go to a younger woman's bed,
For I will not endure an affair
In which I am older than the man."
(#73)
"The moon has set,
And the Pleiades
Midnight
The hour has gone by
I sleep alone."
Comment 5 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsThe Best Poetry of Sappho into English
By Kohtaro Hayashi on April 1, 2011
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
Readers must notice that this Amazon's web has a few incorrect information.
First; The title of this book is "Sappho: Poems & Fragments" and author is Josephine Balmer, not by S.Lombardo. Second; "Editorial Reviews" is shown for the S.Lombardo's Sappho, not for the J.Balmer's Sappho. Third; Three customers reviews (except for mine), these are also for the Lombardo's Sappho. Fourth; In Product Details, "116 pages" is wrong for "117 pages".

When I think of it, it is very strange that there are no reviews from this book, in spite of it had issued in nearly thirty years ago.
I say my conclusion first, that, this book is the best poetry of Sappho into English. (except for the poetries which have an interpretative rendition, such as Bliss Carman's or John M O'Hara's Sappho).

The meaning of The Best is shown into the Concord with Feelings and with Thoughts between this translator and Sappho. Feelings mean the expression of musical-tone-fluency, and Thoughts mean their minds.

Josephine Balmer's every verses are more fluent with beautiful sounds than many other English translators' works. (e.g. by Davenport, Roche, Barnstone, Powell, Carson, or Stacpoole, Petersen, Way, Haines, Hill, Lattimore, and many more, but except Cox).
It is clear that her individuality will appear evidently when someone compares her poems with the others. Her poem #79 (in this book, "Leave Crete and come to me here, to this holy temple,....") will be good example for it.

This musical-tone-fluency is the most important factor for the translating Sappho's poems. (Euphony, for the oral essence).Read more ›
Comment 3 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

Poems and Fragments
Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more
This item: Poems and Fragments
Set up a giveaway

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?

There's a problem loading this menu right now.

Learn more about Amazon Prime.