Paul Roche (1991 [1966]): The Love Songs of Sappho. Signet Classics.
251 pp. 100 fragments.
Undying Aphrodite on your caparisoned throne,
Daughter of Zeus and weaver of ruses—
Now I address you:
Queen, do not hurt my heart, do not harry it
Paul Roche’s translation of Sappho, first published in 1966, was reissued in a new edition with a new introduction by Page duBois in 1991. Despite being first published a decade after Lobel & Page’s edition, and republished with a revised introduction a quarter-century on from that, Roche nonetheless bases his translation on Edmonds’ edition. Consequently he includes the very dubious Edmonds 1a (though notes that its genuineness “is doubted by some”, which rather understates the case!), as well as the inauthentic Greek Anthology epigrams.
Roche orders the poems according to his own scheme, and provides comparative numeration only with Edmonds’ edition. As ever with translations relying on Edmonds’ text, his translations are heavily supplemented. For example, compare Rayor’s translation of fr. 63 (5 Roche) with Roche’s:
O Dream, through black [night]
you roam and when sleep ...
sweet god, wonderfully from sorrow ...
to keep your power far apart ...
and I hope I will not share ...
nothing of the blessed ...
for I would not be so ...
delights ...
and may I have ...
them all ...
Oneirus, god of dreams,
son of the jet black night,
last lingerer as the morning light
lifts slumber from our eyes–you soothing god
who warns me of the tension and the strife
of keeping burning wish and act apart:
I do not think that I shall spurn
the truth of what you’ve shown.
For with the Blessed Ones’ support
I shall by no means not
grasp the thing for which I groan.
When I was a little child
I never was so imbecile
as turn my back upon a bauble
my loving mother held towards me.
So let the Blessed Ones, I pray, and presently,
provide me with the chance
of what I crave:
seeing that I’ve honored them in poetry
and in my dance.
Obviously Roche’s version is heavily supplemented, but Roche has somehow managed to make the poem more difficult to comprehend at the same time! “I shall by no means not grasp the thing for which I groan” is just horribly tortured syntax, and I’m not convinced that “So let the Blessed Ones, I pray, and presently, provide me with the chance of what I crave” is even coherent.
I have absolutely nothing good to say about this translation.