Page:The Poems of Sappho (1924).djvu/83

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She whose gentle footfall and radiant face

Hold the power to charm more than a vision

Of chariots and the mail-clad battalions

of Lydia’s army.

So must we learn in a world made as this one

Man can never attain his greatest desire,

[But must pray for what good fortune Fate holdeth,

Never unmindful.]

In the volume of the Egypt Exploration Society, “Oxyrhynchus Papyrus,” Part X, 1914, is printed this important fragment of a poem by Sappho. There are nearly six stanzas, and the editors, as well as Mr. Edmonds, have essayed the interesting and difficult task of emendation. In the “Classical Review,” May 1914, Mr. Edmonds published his version as here given, and his result is somewhat different from that of the editors of the Exploration Society’s volume. However, both sets of conjectures are plausible, and some are almost obviously right.

Mr. Edmonds has attempted the fuller restoration. The fragment with his conjectural restorations in brackets is as it is here printed. There is a very great deal of restoration in the last few lines, and in the “Classical Review,” June 1914,