Poem for Friday and Venus Is Missing

A Hymn To Venus 

By Sappho 

Translated by Roby Datta 

O thou on broider'd throne, immortal Venus,

Daughter of Jove, wile-weaver, I beseech thee,

Not, not with pains, and not with troubles, weigh thou,

O Queen, my spirit;

But hither come, if ever thou aforetime

That voice of mine with heedful ear from far-off

Didst hear, and, having left thy Father's mansions

All-golden, camest

With chariot yoked; and thou wast drawn by beauteous

And fleeting sparrows, round the earth all-dusky

A-flapping fast their wings, from utmost heaven

Athwart the midmost;

And quickly they arrived; and thou, O blest one,

Thy smile displaying on thy face immortal,

Didst ask, why now again I grieved, and wherefore

Again I call'd thee,

And what I most desired, for me to happen,

With madding spirit. "Now again, what Charmer

Wouldst thou lead forth to be thy love? What person,

O Sappho, wrongs thee?

"For, even tho' one flies, one soon shall follow,

And, if one takes not gifts, one yet shall give them,

And, if one loves thee not, one soon shall love thee,

Howso unwilling."

Come now to me, and loosen me from cruel

Tangle of care, and, whatso to accomplish

My spirit seeks, accomplish; and thyself be

A fellow-fighter.

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Adam and Haley closed on their new house on Friday! They're moving closer to her parents, since she's teaching classes in Fitchburg and Worcester but not in Boston, and he works remotely so he's fine with moving. My day was not as exciting as theirs -- it involved eggs for lunch, a bunch of phone calls trying to find a new doctor, and various computer stuff, but it didn't rain and the beach had ducks and some cormorants. 

When we got home, we watched the Peach Bowl; I like both Oregon and Indiana, but the latter won easily. Now we're watching the last episode of The Winter King, where a lot of the violence seems to be for violence's sake and not history or storytelling, but I never read the books it's based on so maybe this is Cornwell's fault and not the show's. Here are photos of Venus Is Missing, a one-woman tour de force at the Seattle Art Museum: