CleisSappho
Sleep, darling
I have a small
daughter called
Cleis, who islike a golden
flower
I wouldn't
take all Croesus'
kingdom with love
thrown in, for her---
Don't ask me what to wear
I have no embroidered
headband from Sardis to
give you, Cleis, such as
I wore
and my mother
always said that in her
day a purple ribbon
looped in the hair was thought
to be high style indeedbut we were dark:
a girl
whose hair is yellower than
torchlight should wear no
headdress but fresh flowersSappho
tr. Barnard
This poem is one of many published by the English Server at CMU, a non-profit collective of students and faculty at Carnegie Mellon University.