MOTHER, I cannot mind my wheel;
My fingers ache, my lips are dry:
O, if you felt the pain I feel!
But O, who ever felt as I?
No longer could I doubt him true-
All other men may use deceit;
He always said my eyes were blue,
And often swore my lips were sweet.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
In my humble opiniion, this is one of the most perfect lyrics in the English language. Why do you have a computer reading it? And pronouncing the HTML letters as well! It's absurd. The machine reads without affect — of course! because it has no understanding of the pathos of the girl or young woman who is the speaker of these plaintive words. Inspired by a fragment of Sappho, it has been translated, crafted, and completed by Walter Savage Landor.