Everyone else is translating it, so why can't I?

An old song sung new, if somewhat haltingly. With help from ponies by West and Taaffe and hints from Grist:


Sappho's Old Song

Seize the flower-folded Muses' gifts,
My girls -- the lyre's clear-strung music lifts

But not for me. My tender body's marked
By old age, my hair's turned white from dark,

My heart is heavy, and my knees are gone
That once I danced upon as fleet as fawns.

So I complain; but what else is there -- rage?
For, being human, no, I can't not age.

You have heard how Tithonus had his day:
The rose-armed Dawn loved him, took him away,

Young and handsome then, and yet grey time
Still caught him, aged him in an immortal's house.


---L.