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Fragment 7a

Really, Andromeda,
I do not resent you
for that fleeting boy
who put fire in your breast.

The girls and I……………
……………………………
……………………………
…or against this smooth stone.

The summer moon
wanes and by the hearth
I bury my onyx lyric
between the phases of my thighs.

……………………………
……………………………
so weave flowers in your hair
and hasten with the olive oil.

Note: These newly discovered Sappho fragments were found on a scroll encased in an onyx phallus (dildonicon) excavated from what had apparently been a swamp on Lesbos in the sixth century BCE. Unfortunately, the dildonicon was not perfectly sealed, and the manuscript, the only one currently extant that dates from Sappho’s lifetime, was coated in a gooey, swampy membrane, which crystallized at some later date, rendering much of the text illegible (denoted by dots in the translation) and the meaning of the verse, not to mention the particular occasion, hopelessly lost.