Selected by Julia V.
Contemporary poet and classicist Anne Carson’s ambitious bilingual translation of the work of ancient Greek lyric poet Sappho is a stunning collection of the fragmented remains of Sappho’s nine volumes of work that she is said to have composed in her life, of which only one survives in its entirety.
If Not, Winter presents Sappho’s thoughtful explorations of desire, old age, love, bees, loss and chickpeas. Carson’s use of brackets and vast empty page space visually emphasizes voids of information that resonate throughout as a constant reminder as to what both has been irrevocably lost over time as well as what powerfully endures from one of history’s most enigmatic lyricists.
Julia V. works at Powell’s Hyde Park, where she especially enjoys the selection of books on printmaking.
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