delicate the weave,
fair the thread:
clear the colours,
apple-leaf green,
ox-heart blood-red:
rare the texture
woven from wild ram,
sea-bred horned sheep:
the stallion and his mare,
unbridled, with arrow-pattern,
are worked on
the blue cloth
Note: The above excerpt from H.D.'s 1957 poem Fair The Thread appears in Guy Davenport's introduction to his 7 Greeks translations volume. Davenport cites the lines as an example of a conscious imitation by H.D. of Sappho. The entire poem contains only a few additional lines, which appear at the poem's beginning and end.
Davenport's point is a valid one and interestingly, I think, this abridgement is a better, more powerful and affecting poem, than H.D.'s original, integral version.
