No Word

I have had not one word from her Frankly I wish I were dead. When she left, she wept a great deal; she said to me, ``This parting must be endured, Sappho. I go unwillingly.'' I said, ``Go, and be happy but remember (you know well) whom you leave shackled by love ``If you forget me, think of our gifts to Aphrodite and all the loveliness that we shared ``all the violet tiaras, braided rosebuds, dill and crocus twined around your young neck ``myrrh poured on your head and on soft mats girls with all that they most wished for beside them ``while no voices chanted choruses without ours, no woodlot bloomed in spring without song...'' Sappho tr. Barnard