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18
SAPPHO.
Thick-clustering hyacinths was long
Hidden from sight—
An egg, but of no mortal birth,
Far whiter than all eggs of earth.
And none save Zeus and she, I wis,
Could tell what swan had fathered this,
This egg so white.
XXII.
To a youth who wooed a woman older than himself.
(Fragment 75.)
Friend, woo me not so earnestly.
Vain is thy prayer.
Nay, if in truth thou lovest me,
Hereafter spare
My wearied ears a suit denied.
Go, choose for thee a younger bride.
Not I will brook to live with thee,
An old wife to a young man tied,
Doomed as the years fleet by to see
A spouse who gazes hungry-eyed
On such as she can never be,
The young and fair,
And waits to enshroud her clay with glee,
And graveward bear.
