![]() ![]() The poem explicitly sidesteps the drama of unrequited love by specifying that the beloved leaves against her will. The switch from narrative to dialogue also encourages a confusion of subjects in “Sappho, I swear, against my will I leave you,” the beloved becomes the “I.” Indeed, although the poem’s sadness rests on the distance between its two protagonists, “Sappho” and her beloved are marked by their closeness. Yet the departed beloved continues to speak, so that it is suddenly unclear where she is and whether or not the speaker is describing events in order. On the one hand, it is possible to read lines 2-3 as a scene in which the beloved leaves and “Sappho” remains, alone and weighted with many tears, especially because the verb “left” suggests a definite before and after. The first three lines of the poem reiterate the issue of temporal ambiguity. At the same time, the doubling serves to destabilize the poem’s sense of subject: it isn’t clear whether the speaker is left alone with her “many tears,” or if they are another description of the weeping beloved. By surrounding “she left me” with references to crying, “weeping” before and “with many tears” after, the poem emphasizes the sadness of leaving. The use of the third person contributes to the distance between lovers which forms the poem’s central tension, as does the stripped-down language of the first two lines. Unlike many other Sappho love poems, most famously “Fragment 31,” the speaker in “Fragment 94” initially speaks of her lover in the third person. ![]() The Greek verb tense Sappho uses can be translated as either “to be dead” or “to have died.” The issue of temporal ambiguity is woven throughout the poem through its consideration of healing through memory. Regardless, the bold declaration sets the emotional tone for the fragment, and introduces the motif of desire in an unexpected context. If, however, it is the beloved who speaks the first line, then it is easiest to read the poem as drawing a contrast between two perspectives: she who mourns the loss of her beloved, and the speaker who rejoices in the existence of the past. The first lines of “Fragment 94” are missing, so it is impossible to know for sure whether “Sappho” or her beloved “want to be dead.” If the former, the poem becomes a lament, a memory encompassed by the speaker’s bereavement. She recalls making love, all the beautiful places they visited together, and their dance and song. Sappho reminds her beloved how she decorated herself with flowers and perfumed herself with sweet oils. Then, as if she sees the doubt in her beloved’s eyes, she tells her that even if she cannot be happy, she should remember the time they spent together. In response, Sappho told her to be happy and remember that she was loved. When the beloved departed, she was weeping, and told Sappho that she did not want to go. “Fragment 94” begins with a lament: Sappho or her beloved expressing a desire for death.
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