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When in the spring the swallows all return

by Sappho
Translated by Bliss Carman (1904) · From Sappho: One Hundred Lyrics, XCIII

When in the spring the swallows all return,
And the bleak bitter sea grows mild once more,
With all its thunders softened to a sigh;

When to the meadows the young green comes back,
And swelling buds put forth on every bough,
With wild-wood odours on the delicate air;

Ah, then, in that so lovely earth wilt thou
With all thy beauty love me all one way,
And make me all thy lover as before?

Lo, where the white-maned horses of the surge,
Plunging in thunderous onset to the shore,
Trample and break and charge along the sand!

This poem and this translation are in the public domain. Source text: Project Gutenberg.

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