Sappho
(said to have flourished in the late 7th and early 6th centuries BCE)
“Some say ships, infantry or horsemen
The greatest beauty earth can offer;
I say it is whatever a person
Most lusts after.”
- From a poem fragment commonly known as Fragment 16, translated here by Aaron Poochigian for Sappho, Stung with Love: Poems and Fragments (Penguin Classics, 2009).
An alternative translation is:
“Some say the most beautiful thing on the dark Earth is a host of cavalry, and some claim a host of foot soldiers, and others say a fleet of ships; but for me it is my lover.”
(Poetic fragment in Sappho: Complete Works (Delphi Classics, 2015), translated by Peter Russell, 2011).
Another:
“Some say an army of horsemen,
some of footsoldiers, some of ships,
is the fairest thing on the black earth,
but I say it is what one loves.”
(Julia Dubnoff via University of Houston).
or
“The most beautiful thing on the face of dark
earth? Some say it’s a host of cavalry, others of
infantry, still others of ships. But as for me, I
say, it is whatever you love.”
(Western University translation).
