A previously unknown poem by Sappho, the Ancient Greek poet, has been found on a scrap of papyrus. The poem, which reflects on growing old, is only the fourth known to have survived and was discovered last year as part of the covering of an Egyptian mummy.
The full 101-word poem, an extract from which is below, will be published in The Times Literary Supplement today, with a translation by Martin West, a renowned Greek scholar and Emeritus Fellow of All Souls, Oxford. Sappho, who wrote mainly love poems, was born on the island of Lesbos between 630 BC and 612 BC.
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Extract: You for the fragrant- blossomed Muses’ lovely gifts be zealous, girls, and the clear
melodious lyre: but my once tender body old age now has seized; my
hair’s turned white instead of dark;
my heart’s grown heavy, my knees
will not support me, that once on
a time were fleet for the dance as fawns. This state I oft bemoan; but what’s to do? Not to grow old,
being human, there’s no way.