In Alcaic Metre
28 · Voigt 137¶Hadst thou felt desire for things good or noble, and had not thy tongue framed some evil speech, shame had not filled thine eyes, but thou hadst spoken honestly about it.
Αἰ δ’ ἦχες ἔσλων ἴμερον η κάλων,
καὶ μή τι ϝείπην γλῶσσ’ ἐκύκα κάκον,
αἴδως κέ σ’ οὐ κίχανεν ὄππατ’,
ἀλλ’ ἔλεγες περὶ τῶ δικαίως.
The Loves of Sappho and Alcaeus.
Alcaeus.—I fain would speak, I fain would tell,
But shame and fear my utterance quell.
Sappho.—If aught of good, if aught of fair
Thy tongue were labouring to declare,
Nor shame should dash thy glance, nor fear
Forbid thy suit to reach my ear.
— Anon. (Edin. Rev., 1832, p. 190).
Aristotle, in his Rhetoric, i. 9, about 330 B.C., says ‘base things dishonour those who do or wish them, as Sappho showed when Alcaeus said—
ἰόπλοκ’ ἄγνα μελλιχόμειδε Σάπφοι,
θέλω τι ϝείπην, ἀλλά με κωλύει αἴδως.
“Violet-weaving, pure, softly-smiling Sappho, I would say something, but shame restrains me”’ (cf. supra, p. 8), and she answered him in the words of the present fragment.
Blass (Rhein. Mus. 1879, xxix. p. 150) believes that these verses also are Sappho’s, not Alcaeus’. Certainly they were quoted as Sappho’s by Anna Comnena, about 1110 A.D., as well as by another writer whom Blass refers to. Blass would read the last line περὶ ὦ δικαίως (‘δικαίως) = περὶ οὗ ἐδικαίους, about that which thou didst pretend.
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