Page:The Poems of Sappho (1924).djvu/73

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So once again come, Mistress; and releasing

Me from my sadness, give me what I sue for,

Grant me my prayer, and be as heretofore now,

Friend and protectress.

The translation of T. W. Higginson, 1871, is also good, but again it diverges unnecessarily from the original.

Beautiful-throned, immortal Aphrodite,

Daughter of Zeus, beguiler, I implore thee

Weigh me not down with weariness and anguish,

O thou most holy!

Come to me now if ever thou in kindness

Hearkenest my words—and often hast thou hearkened

Heeding, and coming from the mansions golden

Of thy great Father,

Yoking thy chariot—borne by the most lovely

Consecrated birds, with dusky tinted pinions,

Waving swift wings from utmost heights of heaven

Through the mid-ether;