The First Love Letter (Sappho 31/Catullus 51)
The First Love Letter (Sappho 31/Catullus 51)
That man—he seems to be equal to a god, to me.
That man—if it’s OK to say so—seems to surpass gods,
who gets to sit across from you time after time,
and hear you, and watch you
sweetly laughing. The thought
rips each sense out of me: for
once I saw you, Lesbia, no words were left
within my mouth;
but, tongue-numbed, and with little embers
racing through each limb, my ears
began ringing with the thud of my chest,
and two dusks fell over my two eyes.
One woman said the passion made her feel
both as dead and alive as still green grass.
And one man said such passions hide in leisure,
which ruins kings and cities and happiness.