Sing it, Sappho

There's a new poem by Sappho--101 lines! That makes four. I used to be skeptical about her: I did not want to read the fragmentary work of anyone. But then I remembered: hey! I love modernism! I'm a feminist! Maybe I should check her out. OMG: the fragments are terrific. (And yes, I know that I'm receiving them in their modernist translations. The Victorian translations are far less to my taste.) Still, how thrilling to read "Equal to the gods"--so direct in its observation that he who sits next to the beloved is so blessed as to be "equal to the gods."

I haven't read Erica Jong's Sappho book, but I can recommend Yopie Prins' Victorian Sappho for a great, learned, scholarly history on what the Victorians did (and did not do) with this unruly, sublime, erotic woman poet.

You can read about the new poem on the Guardian website. (Link via Randa, Moorish Girl's gal Friday.)