the unbearable sadness of burning

JL Wall reminds us at League of Extraordinary Gentlemen that of the nine books of Sappho's poetry that once existed--in the Library of Alexandria, of course--we have but a single complete poem and a smattering of fragments. Whether or not her works were actually burned, their loss is still keenly felt.

This collection of twenty-eight different translations has intrigued me enough to put Anne Carson's If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho onto my TBR list.