Funny Mouth
New Episode of "Private Life"— Richard Hell!
The poet cries out, once again, for love. And the goddess herself appears, descending from far away on the sharp wings of small birds. Coolly indulgent, even slightly ironic, Aphrodite wants know: Who is it this time, this girl that’s driving you crazy?—“Who, O Sappho, is wronging you?” Clearly we’ve been here before, because the poet sings of love, and of desire and pleasure and suffering, in a mixture she calls “bitter-sweet.”
The goddess promises an intervention, a reversal: “For if she flees, soon she will pursue. If she refuses gifts, rather will she give them. If she does not love, soon she will love even unwilling.” Which is to say, whoever this girl is, she will fall in love with the poet, even against her will, because passion is not subject to rational decision or conscious choice, but is the mysterious province of the gods. For today at least, Love is on the poet’s side.
This poem-prayer was composed 2600 years ago by Sappho. It’s the only complete work we have by her and I recommend Anne Carson’s beautifully stripped version of “Ode to Aphrodite” (quoted from above) opening her book If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho…
Speaking of poetry, the new episode of “Private Life” is out now! It’s a conversation with punk legend “Richard Hell on Godlike and Poetry as a Way of Life”. We talk about the re-release of his 2005 novel, that follows two poets around New York’s downtown poetry scene of the 1970s (and bear a striking resemblance to Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud.)
I hope you enjoy! If you do, please ”like it” “rate it” “comment” and send it to your friends!