“even honey I spat from my mouth...”
while browsing wikisource at the city library where i worked half of 2025, i came across this line by the third-century b.c poetess nossis. it was a quiet weekday afternoon and there weren't many readers at the desk
i was going through a collection of french translations and paraphrases by early 20th-century lesbian poetess renée vivien which included nossis's work
the image of honey spat seemed very vivid to me. i enjoyed how the line sounded but it also reminded me of the taste and sticky feeling of honey in your mouth, just before you either swallow it or spit it out. it made me think of the difficulty of creating something sweet, soft, or tender out of anger, and of the danger of using dialectical opposites to describe such an experience
honey, as a liquid, holds the contradictions of its matter pretty well, but we still need to make sure there will be bees in the future if we want hives to produce it. i think my own relationship with ancient greek poetry is built on a similar ambiguity. in high school, it was compulsory to study greek authors, but i never heard of any poetesses from that period until my own queerness led me to sappho, and then to other names
nossis' line comes from a poem about eros that clearly nods to sappho:
nothing is sweeter than love - all riches are second -
even honey I spat from my mouth.
nossis says this: whom cypris did not kiss,
does not know what sort of roses her flowers are
even honey I spat from my mouth.
nossis says this: whom cypris did not kiss,
does not know what sort of roses her flowers are
(english translation by caroline bishop)
as a continuation of these thoughts, i did my own paraphrase of this text:
this is about love
don't be nostalgic
feelings are no screen
to scroll on your own
but touch you in time
when you let them in
cypris is too queer
to inhabit words
she's the grass and thyme
of past yet not lived
you better cling on
the scent of her kiss
***
about grief [chance ???]
about grief [chance ???]
***