Silence Exile and Crumpets

The difference between Catullus and Sappho is that I can still more or less read Latin...These are still versions, rather than translations, because they are two of the most translated poems in literature. They're quite a bit more faithful than the Sappho poems have tended to be though.

I hate I love
And what the fuck? you say.
Dunno.That's how I feel,
torn into bits.


Howl, howl your eyes to ponds of tears
you little boys with bows, you pretty girls,
servants of Love, and all you loving men
who hold Love's train.
The little bird is dead
dingy brown sparrow that my girlfriend loved.
She sometimes said she'd gouge out her own eyes
rather than lose it. And it knew her like
A girl knows Mother, it was just that sweet
sat in her lap, fluttered and sang to her
chirrup pippip in language that she alone
could hear, its mistress. On the road to death
it flutters darkling never to return.
So fuck you greedy Death that takes good things
the pretty little sparrow could have stayed
you bastard! farewell sparrow...Ah, the tears
my red-eyed sweet is weeping at your grave