92
THE POEMS OF SAPPHO
37
Ἦρος ἄγγελος ἰμερόφωνος ἀήδων.
The messenger of Spring, the sweet-voiced nightingale.
Quoted by the Scholiast on the Electra of Sophocles, 149, “the nightingale is the messenger of Zeus, because it is the sign of Spring.”
Compare Ben Jonson’s “The Sad Shepherd,” Act II, Scene vi: “The dear good angel of the Spring, the nightingale.”
38
Ἔρος δαὖτέ μ᾽ ὀ λυσιμέλης δόνει
γλυκύπικρον ἀμάχανον ὄρπετον.
Now Love, the ineluctable, dominates and shakes my being, and fills me with bitter-sweetness.
Now Love, the ineluctable, with bitter sweetness
Fills me, overwhelms me, and shakes my being.
Quoted by Hephaestion.
