Sappho’s poetry, quoted in this novel, is included with the translator’s permission. The poems appeared in Sappho, Lyrics in the Original Greek, with translations by Willis Barnstone, Anchor Books, Doubleday, 1965.

For clarity, the calendar used by Sappho has been translated into our modern calendar.

 

 

Sappho’s Journal

Sappho’s Journal

 

 

 

 

Sappho, walking on her island beach, 

pauses by a broken amphora: 

With one foot, she nudges the terra cotta and black jar, 

its painted chariot, charioteer and horses: 

The charioteer wears a laurel wreath. 

Sappho, about 30 years old, 

her hair braided around her head, 

naked, sandaled, saunters along the Mediterranean, 

gulls and pelicans flying, surf and gull sounds in early morning yellow.

 

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