IV
Bittersweet
γλυκύπικρον
Sweetbitter. The compound holds both. Neither English word exhausts it.
γλυκύ
Approach. Pleasure. The beloved as presence. Hope that the distance might close.
one word
πικρον
Ache. Fear. The beloved as absence that still occupies the mind. A creature that cannot be managed.
Ἔρος δηὖτέ μ’ ὀ λυσιμέλης δόνει,
γλυκύπικρον ἀμάχανον ὄρπετον
Once again limb-loosening Eros shakes me, a bittersweet, irresistible creeping thing.
Sappho, fragment 130 Voigt.
The Greek is Sappho, fragment 130. γλυκύπικρον is actually there. The second line can lean toward Eros, toward the shaken speaker, or toward the fused event. Scholars have argued that the ambiguity is the point.
Desire can hold opposing states at once. The beloved can be elsewhere and still be the most present fact in a life.
Why can absence become so present?
γλυκύπικρον
The compound holds both.
Notes · 1
- Sappho, fragment 130 Voigt (LP 130). Greek preserved by Hephaestion, Handbook on Metres. Working English by this publication, after the Greek.
Eve
Bittersweet
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