Skip to main content

Moon and Stars

After Sappho, fragment 34
 
A crowd of stars is glorious on moonless nights,
but when the moon is full they’re shy, they shrink away.
So with the other girls when you appeared today:
your greater beauty overwhelmed their lesser lights.

Audio file

Listen to this poem — read by the author

Sappho, Fragment 34

Ἄστερες μὲν ἀμφὶ κάλαν σελάνναν
ἂψ ἀπυκρύπτοισι φάεννον εἶδος,
ὄπποτα πλήθοισα μάλιστα λάμπῃ
   γᾶν