Last year, scholars identified a papyrus at the University of Cologne as part of a roll containing the poems of Sappho. Of the three poems represented there by fragments, one was previously unknown. On June 24, the TLS published that poem in the original text (with conjectural restorations) and an English translation by Martin West; here we print two further versions of it made from those materials.
SAPPHO AND THE WEIGHT OF YEARS
Girls, be good to these spirits of music and poetry
that breast your threshold with their scented gifts.
Lift the lyre, clear and sweet, they leave with you.
As for me, this body is now so arthritic
I cannot play, hardly even hold the instrument.
Can you believe my white hair was once black?
And oh, the soul grows heavy with the body.
Complaining knee-joints creak at every move.
