stay naked sunday: building a sanctuary
Random mostly unorganized thoughts on a Stay Naked Sunday evening; back in February here I wrote about the need to find a sanctuary for my sensual and/or erotic expression. At the time this was as much a ‘need’ for me as it was a ‘want’ – meaning that the urgency to express what resides within me had become greater than simply the desire to do so. I had struggled with trying to find that balance for myself for almost a year, but now that I’ve found my sanctuary within the pages of geishaland, it’s become much more about building this temple.
So much has gone into this space – so much of myself, these words I share… but they’re still only glimpses of life and living – even tho the intimacy of my words, especially in my sanctuary, have truly become the mirror I spent so much time searching for.
Perhaps the illusion of privacy has enabled be to be so open and so naked with my thoughts, and perhaps it’s because once again I’ve been touched by the muse of love and inspiration. To write letters of love to one you cherish is the wellspring from which the greatest art is ever born.
I’ve been lucky in love – lucky to have people in my life whom I can fully give myself to and share the beauty of love with. But like any soul which breathes with love; the soul of an artist, the soul of a writer, inspiration can come, sometimes unexpectedly, in many forms and with many faces. I have been so blessed again.
In some ways I’ve been strangely inspired to swim in my own fantasies and then write about them, but I’ve also been compelled to write these letters to my lovers, either physical or metaphysical, and I’ve also been moved to confess some of my darkest secrets too. All of these things are part of me – nothing such as love is ever one dimensional, and neither are human beings.
But in thinking about my sanctuary, I feel that I’ve finally found that place I’ve been searching for – and now it’s up to me to build it with the bricks of my own creation.
I’d like to share one of Sappho’s only surviving poems. It’s very special to me, and I hope it’s just as special to she who has touched my heart again.
Enjoy your evening and I hope you had a great Stay Naked Sunday! I slept like the lazy bitch I am – and of course I spent it naked! :lol:
HYMN TO APHRODITE
by: Sappho
THRONED in splendor, immortal Aphrodite!
Child of Zeus, Enchantress, I implore thee
Slay me not in this distress and anguish,
Lady of beauty.
Hither come as once before thou camest,
When from afar thou heard’st my voice lamenting,
Heard’st and camest, leaving thy glorious father’s Palace golden,
Yoking thy chariot. Fair the doves that bore thee;
Swift to the darksome earth their course directing,
Waving their thick wings from the highest heaven
Down through the ether.
Quickly they came. Then thou, O blessed goddess,
All in smiling wreathed thy face immortal,
Bade me tell thee the cause of all my suffering,
Why now I called thee;
What for my maddened heart I most was longing.
“Whom,” thou criest, “dost wish that sweet Persuasion
Now win over and lead to thy love, my Sappho?
Who is it wrongs thee?
“For, though now she flies, she soon shall follow,
Soon shall be giving gifts who now rejects them.
Even though now she love not, soon shall she love thee
Even though thou wouldst not.”
Come then now, dear goddess, and release me
From my anguish. All my heart’s desiring
Grant thou now. Now too again as aforetime,
Be thou my ally.
1Pegxx
wrote on 19 May 2008 at 5:57
What a beautiful, seemingly apt piece of poetry (one I poached to my own LJ) but of course everyone reads poetry in their own unique way.
As quoted from the link you posted;
‘She was one of the first poets to write from the first person, describing love and loss as it affected her personally.’
Thank you for sharing
Pegxx
2nina aoki
wrote on 19 May 2008 at 8:15
Pegxx,
Good morning sweetheart!
I’m so happy to hear that you enjoyed this poem — it’s one of my favorites, and yes you’re right, everyone does tend to interpret words in their own way — as they should. The problem with reading Sappho is it’s very dependent on who has done the translation. Much of her work did not survive over time and many of the original translations tried to sway Sappho’s words towards a more heterosexual tone rather than the lesbian voice for which most of us have come to accept.
I love that site btw! which is why I linked it! There’s a lot there to check out!
My own interpretation of “Hymn to Aphroditie” is this –
It’s basically about unrequited love for another woman, and Sappho is pleading with Aphrodite to help her again by making the object of Sappho’s love return those feelings. It’s a lyric poem in which Aphrodite answers Sappho, most significantly in this line:
“Whom,” thou criest, “dost wish that sweet Persuasion
Now win over and lead to thy love, my Sappho?
Who is it wrongs thee?
The poem itself suggests that Sappho has pleaded with Aphrodite before to help her this way — and as Aphrodite has done before as the poem suggests, she answers Sappho and tells her that the object of her love will soon return those feelings.
I can think of several instances when this poem has been on my mind! :lol:
I also especially love this one too:
________________________________
I have not had one word from her
Frankly I wish I were dead
When she left, she wept
a great deal; she said to me, “This parting must be
endured, Sappho. I go unwillingly.”
I said, “Go, and be happy
but remember (you know
well) whom you leave shackled by love
“If you forget me, think
of our gifts to Aphrodite
and all the loveliness that we shared
“all the violet tiaras,
braided rosebuds, dill and
crocus twined around your young neck
“myrrh poured on your head
and on soft mats girls with
all that they most wished for beside them
“while no voices chanted
choruses without ours,
no woodlot bloomed in spring without song…”
________________________________
This one sings of a love shared between Sappho and another woman who she must now let go, but the pain is so great that Sappho wishes for her own death, even tho her lover tells Sappho that she leaves unwillingly. It’s an interesting perspective on modern reality.
Thanks!
nina
3steffy
wrote on 19 May 2008 at 14:41
Oh my goodness,
These poems are so enchanting and beautiful. Thank you sooo very much for sharing sweet Nina!
Love,
Steffy
4larokkaku
wrote on 19 May 2008 at 14:50
(didn’t quite know where to post this
on this quiet, reflective afternoon.
decided to put it here.
can’t vouch for line/punctuation -
transcribed it from radio - it’s close.)
“Breakfast Song”
My love, my saving grace,
your eyes are awfully blue.
I kiss your funny face,
your coffee flavored mouth.
Last night I slept with you.
Today I love you so
how can I bear to go
(as soon I must, I know)
to bed with ugly death
in that cold, filthy place,
to sleep there without you,
without the easy breath,
and nightlong, limblong warmth
I’ve grown accustomed to?
– Nobody wants to die;
tell me it is a lie!
But no, I know it’s true.
It’s just the common case;
there’s nothing one can do.
My love, my saving grace,
your eyes are awfully blue,
early and instant blue.
~ Elizabeth Bishop
5Caitlain
wrote on 19 May 2008 at 14:55
I slept like the lazy bitch I am – and of course I spent it naked!
I think Sappho would have been proud. ;-)
It’s very special to me, and I hope it’s just as special to she who has touched my heart again.
I am quite sure she would. ;-)
6nina aoki
wrote on 19 May 2008 at 23:10
Hi steffy,
Thanks! I’m happy that you liked them. Much of Sappho’s work which has survived is very melancholy, but yet it resonates with how powerful the emotions are when they’re shared between women.
Her work is essential reading for me.
Thanks!
nina
7nina aoki
wrote on 19 May 2008 at 23:13
larokkaku,
Thanks for sharing this.
Well, you know, the greatest art has always been created by those artists who had either fallen in love or had just lost their lover — but stories of love are what drive the human spirit.
Something my husband says: all art is born in the gap between what we have… and what we want.
Thanks much!
nina
8nina aoki
wrote on 19 May 2008 at 23:15
Caitlain,
That makes me very happy to know. Being a daughter of Sappho is a special thing! ;)
mwah!
xoxo,
nina
9nina aoki
wrote on 19 May 2008 at 23:46
Thought of the moment
On the Isle of Lesbos so long ago… Sappho loved these women, each and every one of them. They would often leave her and the Isle of Lesbos to go off and be married, breaking Sappho’s heart every time — yet this did not stop Sappho from loving them, and continuing to love them.
How could she have stopped?
Love shared between women is the most beautiful thing in the universe. Sappho knew this, and she knew that loving these women was worth the risk of losing them.