He seems to me equal to gods that man
whoever he is who opposite you
sits and listens close
to your sweet speaking
and lovely laughing—oh it
puts the heart in my chest on wings
for when I look at you, even a moment, no speaking
is left in me
no: tongue breaks and thin
fire is racing under skin
and in eyes no sight and drumming
fills ears
and cold sweat holds me and shaking
grips me all, greener than grass
I am and dead—or almost
I seem to me.
But all is to be dared, because even a person of poverty
- Sappho, tr. Anne Carson
("In the poem Sappho doesn’t use the word ecstasy, but she talks
about herself as standing outside herself and observing her own
condition. It sounds as if she’s achieving the state of standing outside
one’s own soul that constitutes ecstasy, but which also constitutes
what many mystics strive to achieve in canceling their selfhood so that
they can be empty vessels for God. I don’t think Sappho has that idea as
such—it’s an anachronism to ascribe it to her—but I do think there is a
deep spiritual substance to Sappho’s descriptions of gods and our
relation to gods that ought to be taken account of in reading her
poetry. But I don’t exactly know how.")
via
descensus Averno facilis est