Sappho

Let Phaon set his ship to sea
and fare away for ever more,
since he could your words ignore
and couldn’t find any love
for you waving on Levkás shore.

A beautiful girl flies
from a steep rock
into the blue, the deep
into the powerful sea
never more to be.

Still your words ring
true and perfect in my ears,
although it has been
thousands of years that you are gone.