Blog Assignment: The Art of Translation

Catullus 51 is a translation of a poem by the Greek poet Sappho, one of the very few female poets from Greece or Rome whose poems are extant.  Sappho was from the island of Lesbos; Catullus chose the name Lesbia as the pseudonym for his girlfriend Clodia to evoke the passionate love poetry Sappho was famous for.  Here is a translation of Sappho's poem 31 by the classicist and poet Anne Carson:

He seems to me equal to the gods that man
whoever he is who opposite you
sits and listens close
to your sweet speaking
and lovely laughing — oh it
puts the heart in my chest on wings
for when I look at you, even a moment, no speaking
is left in me
no: tongue breaks and thin
fire is racing under skin
and in eyes no sight and drumming
fills ears
and cold sweat holds me and shaking
grips me all, greener than grass
I am and dead — or almost
I seem to me.
But all is to be dared, because even a person of poverty...

Catullus has translated Sappho's Greek poem into Latin but kept the original meter (the Sapphic strophe).  Write a blog post that explores what Catullus keeps and what he changes from the original poem-- how similar are the situations?  which imagery does Catullus keep, which does he change?  how does the last stanza of Catullus relate to the rest of the poem?  Note that one major difference is that when reading Sappho, one assumes that the first person speaker is female, but when reading Catullus, one assumes the speaker is male.  Once the reader has figured out that Catullus is translating Sappho, questions arise about how to interpret the "I" of the speaker.