against the ruins...

Sappho

Fragment 19


]
]waiting
]in sacrifices
]having good
]
]but going
]for we know
]of works
]
]after
]and toward
]says this

Trans. Anne Carson, If Not, Winter / Carson’s use of the bracket “indicates destroyed papyrus or the presence of letters not quite legible somewhere in the line.”

~


William Carlos Williams

The Locust Tree in Flower


Among
of
green

stiff
old
bright

broken
branch
come

white
sweet
May

again


*

For me, there is an intense and universal beauty in pairing these two works. One is fragmented by history and the other by the necessity of reflection.