If Not, Winter Quotes

“someone will remember us
I say
even in another time”
― Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho

“their heart grew cold
they let their wings down”
― Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho

“you came and I was crazy for you
and you cooled my mind that burned with longing”
― Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho

“you burn me”
― Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho

“In fact she herself once blamed me
Kyprogeneia

because I prayed
this word:
I want.”
― Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho

“I would not think to touch the sky with two arms”
― Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho

“may you sleep on the breast of your delicate friend”
― Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho

“yet if you had a desire for good or beautiful things
and your tongue were not concocting some evil to say
shame would not hold down your eyes
but rather you would speak about what is just”
― Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho

“]sing to us
the one with violets in her lap
]mostly
]goes astray”
― Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho

“]Sardis
often turning her thoughts here

]
you like a goddess
and in your song most of all she rejoiced.

But now she is conspicuous among Lydian women
as sometimes at sunset
the rosyfingered moon

surpasses all the stars. And her light
stretches over salt sea
equally and flowerdeep fields.

And the beautiful dew is poured out
and roses bloom and frail
chervil and flowering sweetclover.

But she goes back and forth remembering
gentle Atthis and in longing
she bites her tender mind”
― Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho

“stars around the beautiful moon
hide back their luminous form
whenever all full she shines
on the earth

silvery”
― Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho

“]
]you will remember
]for we in our youth
did these things

yes many and beautiful things
]
]
]”
― Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho

“I want to say something but shame
prevents me

yet if you had a desire for good or beautiful things
and your tongue were not concocting some evil to say,
shame would not hold down your eyes
but rather you would speak about what is just”
― Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho

“and on a soft bed
delicate
you would let loose your longing”
― Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho

“I emphasize the distinction between brackets and no brackets because it will affect your reading experience, if you will allow it. Brackets are exciting. Even though you are approaching Sappho in translation, that is no reason you should miss the drama of trying to read a papyrus torn in half or riddled with holes or smaller than a postage stamp--brackets imply a free space of imaginal adventure.”
― Anne Carson, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho

“I don't know what to do
two states of mind in me”
― Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho

“I simply want to be dead.
Weeping she left me

with many tears and said this:
Oh how badly things have turned out for us.
Sappho, I swear, against my will I leave you.

And I answered her:
Rejoice, go and
remember me. For you know how we cherished you.”
― Sappho , If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho

“Evening you gather back
all that dazzling dawn has put asunder:
you gather a lamb, gather a kid,
gather a child to its mother.”
― Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho

“gathering flowers so very delicate a girl”
― Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho

“for when i look at you, even a moment, no
speaking is left in me
no: tongue breaks and thin
fire is racing under skin”
― Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho

“of all stars the most beautiful”
― Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho

“not one girl I think
who looks on the light of the sun
will ever
have wisdom
like this”
― Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho

“Someone will remember us
I say
Even in another time”
― Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho

“Eros the melter of limbs (now again) stirs me -
sweetbitter unmanageable creature who steals in”
― Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho

“Eros shook my mind like a mountain wind falling on oak trees.”
― Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho

“frequently
for those
I treat well are the ones who most of all
harm me”
― Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho

“As sometimes at sunset the rosyfingered moon surpasses all the stars. And her light stretches over salt sea equally and flowerdeep fields.”
― Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho

“For the man who is beautiful is beautiful to see but the good man will at once also beautiful be”
― Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho

“but me you have forgotten
or you love some man more than me”
― Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho

“neither for me honey nor the honey bee”
― Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho