| It was you, Atthis, who said
"Sappho, if you will not get
up and let us look at you
I shall never love you again!
"Get up, unleash your suppleness,
lift off your Chian nightdress
and, like a lily leaning into "a spring, bathe in the water.
Cleis is bringing your best
purple frock and the yellow
"tunic down from the clothes chest;
you will have a cloak thrown over
you and flowers crowning your hair... "Praxinoa, my child, will you please
roast nuts for breakfast? One
of the gods is being good to us:
"today we are going at last
into Mitylene, our favorite
city, with Sappho, loveliest "of its women; she will walk
among us like a mother with
all her daughters around her "when she comes home from exile..."
But you forgot everything
- Sappho, translated by Mary Barnard
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