Mai passerai - hai lasciato la tua storia Su quella spiaggia che sempre verrai E mi riderai come tu solo fare potevi Tu unica forma - tu unico tu irripetibile Nel sole stavi - ieri e oggi così mi ridevi.
Fragment 31 of Sappho shows how beauty can be a source of suffering. In this fragment, beauty does not generate desire but pain, dizziness, and palpitations. A man of godlike beauty does not generate carnal desire because he represents perfection, and perfection generates fear, confusion, and the other states that Sappho describes in Fragment 31. Sappho does not speak of carnal desire or sexual excitement, but of physical and spiritual suffering. The imperfect, the monstrous, the deformed, the uncommon, and the sinful — understood as the highest form of spiritual imperfection — generate the desire of the flesh. Fragment 31. He seems to me the equal of the gods, that man who sits facing you, and, close beside you, listens and speaks sweetly, and laughs with irresistible charm. Indeed, that has set my heart trembling within my breast. For whenever I look upon you, even for a moment, my voice no longer comes to me; my tongue is broken; at once a subtle fire runs beneath my sk...