Sappho

Fragment 94

“I'm not pretending; I wish I were dead.”  
She was leaving me in tears,

and over and over she said to me: 
“Sappho, it hurts; what's happened to us is just so grim;
it isn't my choice, I swear it, to leave like this.”

These were the words that I answered her:
“Go and be happy; remember me, 
for you know how we have paid court to you:

and if not, then I want to remind you ... and the good things we have enjoyed:

for at my side, many the crowns of violets and roses ... you have put on yourself,

and many the garlands woven from flowers you have cast round your delicate neck,

and with quantities of ... flowery perfume ... fit for a queen even, you anointed yourself all over,

and on soft beds ...  delicate ... you have satisfied desire ...”