Use the following persistent identifier: http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_Nagy.Poetry_as_Performance.1996.
Chapter 4
Mimesis in Lyric: Sappho’s Aphrodite and the Changing Woman of the Apache
Now on the top of Gobernador Knob [a local mountain], I am here.
In the center of my white shell hogan I am here.
Right on the white shell spread I am here.
Right on the fabric spread I am here.
Right at the end of the rainbow I am here. {91|92}
We may note the immediacy of this epiphany, comparable with the epiphany of Aphrodite in Song 1 of Sappho (F 1 V). Even more important, it seems that the “I” here stands for a composite of the girl initiand and Changing Woman herself, though the actual performer is the chief singer.
In the middle of its body, stands a hut,
Brush-built, for the Black Mountain Spirit.
White lightning flashes in these moccasins; [18] {93|94}
White lightning streaks in angular path;
I am the lightning flashing and streaking!
This headdress lives; the noise of its pendants
Sounds and is heard!
My song shall encircle these dancers.
παῖ Δίος δολόπλοκε, λίσσομαί σε,
μή μ’ ἄσαισι μηδ’ ὀνίαισι δάμνα,
πότνια, θῦμον,
5 ἀλλὰ τυίδ’ ἔλθ’, αἴ ποτα κἀτέρωτα
τὰς ἔμας αὔδας ἀίοισα πήλοι
ἔκλυες, πάτρος δὲ δόμον λίποισα
χρύσιον ἦλθες
ἄρμ’ ὐπασδεύξαισα· κάλοι δέ σ’ ἆγον
10 ὤκεες στροῦθοι περὶ γᾶς μελαίνας
πύκνα δίννεντες πτέρ’ ἀπ’ ὠράνωἴθε-
ρος διὰ μέσσω·
αἶψα δ’ ἐξίκοντο· σὺ δ’, ὦ μάκαιρα,
μειδιαίσαισ’ ἀθανάτωι προσώπωι
15 ἤρε’ ὄττι δηὖτε πέπονθα κὤττι
δηὖτε κάλημμι {97|98}
κὤττι μοι μάλιστα θέλω γένεσθαι
μαινόλαι θύμωι· τίνα δηὖτε πείθω
βαῖσ᾿ [34] ἄγην ἐς σὰν φιλότατα; τίς σ’, ὦ
20 Ψάπφ’, ἀδικήει;
καὶ γὰρ αἰ φεύγει, ταχέως διώξει,
αἰ δὲ δῶρα μὴ δέκετ’, ἀλλὰ δώσει,
αἰ δὲ μὴ φίλει, ταχέως φιλήσει
κωὐκ ἐθέλοισα.
25 ἔλθε μοι καὶ νῦν, χαλέπαν δὲ λῦσον
ἐκ μερίμναν, ὄσσα δέ μοι τέλεσσαι
θῦμος ἰμέρρει, τέλεσον· σὺ δ᾿ αὔτα
σύμμαχος ἔσσο
You with varied pattern-woven flowers, [35] immortal Aphrodite,
child of Zeus, weaver of wiles, I implore you,
do not devastate with aches and sorrows,
Mistress, my heart!
5 But come here, if ever at any other time 5
hearing my voice from afar,
you heeded me, and leaving the palace of your father,
golden, you came,
having harnessed the chariot; and you were carried along by beautiful
10 swift sparrows over the dark earth
swirling with their dense plumage from the sky through the
midst of the aether,
and straightaway they arrived. But you, O holy one,
smiling with your immortal looks,
kept asking what is it once again this time [dēûte] that has happened to me and
15 for what reason
once again this time [dēûte] do I invoke you, {98|99}
and what is it that I want more than anything to happen
to my frenzied spirit? “Whom am I once again this time [dēûte] to persuade,
setting out to bring her to your love? Who is doing you,
20 Sappho, wrong?
For if she is fleeing now, soon she will give chase.
If she is not taking gifts, soon she will be giving them.
If she does not love, soon she will love
against her will.”
25 Come to me even now, and free me from harsh
anxieties, and however many things
my spirit yearns to get done, you do for me. You
become my ally in war.
Footnotes