Sappho: Poems & Fragments [Paperback]

Sappho (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Greek

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Bloodaxe Books Ltd (December 31, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1852242019
• ISBN-13: 978-1852242015
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,129,782 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Poetry of Sappho into English, January 23, 2011

By 

Kohtaro Hayashi "Isayah" (Itoh Japan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Sappho: Poems and Fragments (Paperback)

It is very strange, it is an incredible thing that there are no reviews from this book, in spite of it had issued in more than twenty years ago. (1988 edition)
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 anyone 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). Josephine Balmer did it skillfully with Sappho's own mind=thoughts (which include clarity and strength of her style) through the construction of orderly English sentence which are filled with soft, simple, moving, and elegant words.

Her fluency is natural, never artificial nor affected, moreover, very sincere and moderate. She weaved the English poems without anastrophe which Sappho used.
She has written about the "problems to translation" in this book, and she has conquered its problems almost entirely.
It proves, she is one of the rarest poets.

Among the poems of which I have filed fifty-six different forms of Sappho's "Ode to Aphrodite" in English, Balmer's Aphrodite is exactly outstanding.

Addition: Josephine Balmer's first edition of Sappho was published in 1984 by Brilliance Books. Fortunately, this Balmer's Sappho has been reprinted by several publishers. In 1992, Bloodaxe Books has published its first revised edition. Revised places are as follows. A) Poems: #46, #78, #79. B) Others: 1) Author's commentary for translation. 2) Author's commentary for some poems are added (#79, #108, #109"). 3) Chapter IX was combined with old edition's chapter X. 4) All illustrations were deleted. 5) Select bibliography shows 29 books.