Gregory Orr: Glukupikron (to Sappho)

Word you created
which we translate
bittersweet
thereby
reversing the terms
as if we thought pain
came first
and pleasure only later;
for you maybe joy
was initial,

to be followed
by harsh disappointment.

Yet in the word itself
the two fuse,
and in the condition
it refers to
they mingle,
indistinguishable,
not to be separated
by any force.

It was
your word for love.