98, For you, my Cleis

SAPPHO

(Lobel-Page 98 – Σαπφώ – English translation)

NOTE: The Kleanactidae (descendents of Kleanax) here may refer to Myrsilus, a tyrannical ruler of Lesbos, who is responsible for Alcaeus' and perhaps Sappho's exile.


]; as my mother would've said once.


For her in her girlhood, a great

Accessory – if somebody had her tresses

In purple wrapped up with a headband


– It was, and exactly that, back then.

But whoever yellower locks does have

For hair, even than a torch in vibrance:


With circlets array her – wreathed

From flowers in luxuriant bloom – as her

Headdress; yet such a thing right now, Cleis,


A particolored one from Sardis,

Only the city of Maeonia

[


Yet for you, my Cleis: of those particolored ones,

None's yet come under my hold – whence will it,

Such a headdress? – But thus the Mytilenean


]

] to have [

If [⠀⠀⠀] particolored [


These – since the Kleanactidae have made an

Exile in throngs, whom this city holds – are

The memories: for they dreadfully leak away