Poem for Tuesday

A study in translation of one of my favorite short poems by Sappho:

De'duke men ae sela'nna
kai` Plhi'ades, me'sai de`
nu'ktes pa'ra de ee'rxete we'ra,
ee'gw de` mo'na kateu'dw.

The moon has sunk, and the Pleiades,
And midnight is gone,
And the hours are passing, passing,
And I lie alone.

The Pleiades disappear,
the pale moon goes down.
After midnight, time blurs:
sleepless, I lie alone

The moon has set, and the Pleiades;
it is midnight, the time is going by
and I recline alone.

The sinking moon has left the sky,
The Pleiades have also gone.
Midnight comes--and goes, the hours fly
And solitary still, I lie.

The moon has set
and the Pleiades; it is the middle
of the night and the hours go by
and I lie here alone.

The moon has set
and the Pleiades. It is
Midnight. Time passes.
I sleep alone.

The Moon has left the sky,
Lost is the Pleiads' light;
     It is midnight,
     And time slips by,
But on my couch alone I lie.

The first translation is by Margaret Anderson, editor of The Little Review; the last is by J. A. Symonds, 1883. I found the rest unattributed.


Last night an old friend in fandom found me here -- I'm still not sure how, but I am thrilled to see , who once as a birthday present wrote me a story in which my alter ego received proper discipline from Captain Janeway. Must remember to behave around her. Ironically, I stole my latest icon from a long-ago .sig of hers! Thank you love!

So I did watch G.I. Jane, which offered many happy surprises. Somehow I had no idea Anne Bancroft was in the movie, even though I've had the DVD in the house for several days -- how do I manage to miss these things? Had I known, I probably would have seen the movie in the theater. She's one of my oldest crushes, dating back to the first time I saw The Miracle Worker or perhaps The Turning Point. And she's wonderful, bitchy and convincingly Southern despite the fact that I always hear her voice in my head with a New York accent.

Demi is really something. I always think I don't like her on principle, but then I see her and she's generally quite good. Okay, it is hard to get over Indecent Proposal, but if I have managed to forgive Redford then I should forgive her too, right? She does a really nice job being tough without being so tough that I can't identify at all with her character, because I'd last about four minutes in SEAL training even if I knew every woman in the U.S. was depending on me for equal opportunity in the armed forces. And yeah, I got a big kick out of her telling Viggo to suck her dick.

As for Viggo...I swear that had I not known he was in the movie, I would have spent the first hour and a half going, "Who is that guy and where do I know him from?" I don't know if it's the awful mustache, the accent or the coldness of the character, but he was pretty unrecognizable and while I do think he's very good at sinking into roles, I never felt that way before. I couldn't warm up to Master Chief at all -- can't stand that type of officer or mentality and firmly believe a military full of people like that are a big reason the U.S. is so fucked up when it comes to the difference between defense and outrageous aggression -- but I guess that's a tribute to the performance too.

I owe lots of e-mails but am working at my kids' school this morning so will be a little late! Sorry!