It was you, Atthis, who said

"Sappho, if you will not get
up and let us look at you
I shall never love you again!

"Get up, unleash your suppleness,
lift off your Chian nightdress
and, like a lily leaning into

"a spring, bathe in the water.
Cleis is bringing your best
pruple frock and the yellow

"tunic down from the clothes chest;
you will have a cloak thrown over
you and flowers crowning your hair...

"Praxinoa, my child, will you please
roast nuts for our breakfast? One
of the gods is being good to us:

"today we are going at last
into Mitylene, our favorite
city, with Sappho, loveliest

"of its women; she will walk
among us like a mother with
all her daughters around her

"when she comes home from exile..."

But you forget everything

To any army wife, in Sardis:
 
Some say a cavalry corps,
some infantry, some again,
will maintain that the swift oars
 
of our fleet are the finest
sight on dark earth; but I say
that whatever one loves, is.
 
This is easily proved: did
not Helen -- she who had scanned
the flower of the world's manhood --
 
choose as first among men one
who laid Troy's honor in ruin?
warped to his will, forgetting
 
love due her own blood, her own
child, she wandered far with him.
So Anactoria, although you
 
being far away forget us,
the dear sound of your footstep
and light glancing in your eyes
 
would move me more than glitter
of Lydian horse or armored
tread of mainland infantry