How soon will all my lovely days be over,
1
And I no more be found beneath the sun,—
Neither beside the many-murmuring sea,
Nor where the plain winds whisper to the reeds,
Nor in the tall beech-woods among the hills
5
Where roam the bright-lipped oreads, nor along
The pasture sides where berry-pickers stray
And harmless shepherds pipe their sheep to fold!
For I am eager, and the flame of life
9
Burns quickly in the fragile lamp of clay.
Passion and love and longing and hot tears
Consume this mortal Sappho, and too soon
A great wind from the dark will blow upon me,
13
And I be no more found in the fair world,
For all the search of the revolving moon
And patient shine of everlasting stars.