In Adoration

  by: Sappho (c. 610-570 B.C.)

    translated by John Herman Merivale


 

Blest as the immortal gods is he,
The youth whose eyes may look on thee,
Whose ears thy tongue's sweet melody
    May still devour.

 

Thou smilest too!--sweet smile, whose charm
Has struck my soul with wild alarm,
And, when I see thee, bids disarm
    Each vital power.

 

Speechless I gaze: the flame within
Runs swift o'er all my quivering skin:
My eyeballs swim; with dizzy din
    My brain reels round;

 

And cold drops fall; and tremblings frail
Seize every limb; and grassy pale
I grow; and then--together fail
    Both sight and sound.


   More poems by Sappho