ἐνθαδί,nὁρᾷς, μεγάλη τις. τὴ]ν [γὰ]ρ ὑψηλὴν λέγεις,nοὗ δὴ λέγεται πρώτη Σαπφὼnτὸν ὑπέρκομπον θηρῶσα Φάων᾿nοἰστρῶντι πόθῳ ῥίψαι πέτραςnἀπὸ τηλεφανοῦς.
Here,nyou see! A big [rocky outcropping]! You say the one high-up,nwhere indeed it is said that Sappho was the first,nchasing the over-boasting Phaon,nwith stinging longing, threw herself from the rock,nseen from afar.
a chapter from Cesare Pavese’s “Dialoghi con Leucò”ntranslated by William Arrowsmith and D. S. Carne-Ross
Britomart, the Cretan and Minoan nymph, is mentioned in Callimachus. That Sappho was a Lesbian from Lesbos is regrettable, but far sadder is the dissatisfaction which made her throw herself into the Aegean sea. This sea is full of islands and it was on the most easterly of them, Cyprus, that Aphrodite the wave-born came to land. It was a sea that knew many tragic stories. Ariadne, Phaedra, Andromache, Helle, Scylla, Io, Cassandra, Medea--who does not remember their names? They all passed that way and some of them stayed there. Those waters, one might say, were drenched in sperm and tears.
(Sappho, Britomart)
SAPPHO It's boring here, Britomart, the sea is boring. You've been here for ages, aren't you sick of it?
BRITOMART You liked being alive better, I know. To become a curl of frothing wave isn't enough for you mortals. And yet men seek death, this death. Why did you drown yourself, Sappho?
SAPPHO I didn't know it was like this. I thought everything ended with that final jump. I thought the longing and the restlessness and the tumult would all be done with. The sea swallows, the sea annuls, I thought.
BRITOMART Everything dies in the sea, and comes to life again. You know now.
SAPPHO But you, Britomart, you were one of the nymphs. What did you want from the sea?
BRITOMART From the sea? Nothing. I lived on the mountains. A man pursued me and I ran away. You don't know our woods, Sappho, how tall they are. The mountain falls away sheer, and the sea way below . . . I jumped, to save myself.
SAPPHO To save yourself? But why?
BRITOMART To get away from the man who was pursuing me. To be myself. I had to, Sappho.
SAPPHO Had to? Was he so horrid?
BRITOMART I don't know, I didn't see him. All I knew was that I had to get away.
SAPPHO But why? I mean, to leave your daily life, the hills and the fields? To leave the earth and become sea foam--all this because you had to. Had to what? Surely all this meant something to you, weren't these things part of you too?
BRITOMART But Sappho dear, it was desire and longing that made you what you are now. And yet you blame me for running away.
SAPPHO You weren't mortal, you knew that there is no escaping.
BRITOMART But I didn't try to escape from desire, Sappho. I have what I desire. I was a nymph of the rocks, now I am a sea nymph. This is how we're made. Our life is leaf and trunk, spring water, sea foam. We play with the surface of things, we don't run away from them. We change. This is our desire, this is our destiny. Our one terror is that a man should possess us, catch us. That would be the end of everything. You know Calypso?
SAPPHO I've heard of her.
BRITOMART Calypso let herself get caught by a man. And nothing could help her any more. For years she never left her cave. They all came, Leucothea, Callianeira, Cymodoce, Oreithyia, Amphitrite . . . They spoke to her, they carried her off and saved her. But it took years; and first the man had to go.
SAPPHO I can understand Calypso. But I don't understand why she listened to you. If she'd really been in love, how could she have given way?
BRITOMART Oh Sappho, mortal wave, will you never learn what it is to smile?
SAPPHO I knew when I was alive. And I went in search of death.
BRITOMART But that's not smiling, Sappho. Smiling means living like a wave, like a leaf, accepting your fate. It means dying in one form and being reborn in another. It means accepting--accepting oneself, accepting fate.
SAPPHO And did you accept, Britomart?
BRITOMART I ran away, Sappho. It's easier for the nymphs . . .
SAPPHO I knew how to run away too, when I was alive. My way was to look into things, into the tumult, and turn it into speech, into song. But fate is something quite different.
BRITOMART Why, Sappho? Fate is joy, and when you sang your song you were happy.
SAPPHO I was never happy, Britomart. Desire is not song. It destroys, and burns, like a snake, like the wind.
BRITOMART But have you ever known mortal women who lived peacefully in desire and tumult?
SAPPHO None. Wait, yes, perhaps . . . But not mortal women like Sappho. You were still a mountain nymph, I wasn't yet born, when a woman crossed this sea, a mortal woman, who lived always in storm and strife. Perhaps she was in peace. She killed, destroyed, blinded. She was like a goddess always herself, unchanging. Perhaps she didn't even have to smile. She was lovely, no fool, and around her there was nothing but fighting and death. Men fought and died for her, Britomart, asking only for her name to be joined to theirs for a moment, for her name to be given to their living and dying. And they smiled for her. You know her--Helen, the daughter of Leda.
BRITOMART And she, was she happy?
SAPPHO At least she didn't run away, that much is certain. She was sufficient unto herself. She didn't ask what her fate was. Whoever had the will--and the strength--carried her off. For ten years she followed a hero; they took her away from him and married her to another man. He too lost her, countless men fought for her across the seas. Then the second man took her back and she lived with him, at peace. She was buried, and in Hades she knew still more men. She lied to no one, she smiled at no one. Perhaps she was happy.
BRITOMART And you envy this woman?
SAPPHO I envy no one. I wanted to die. It's not enough for me to be someone else, and if I can't be Sappho, I would sooner be nothing.
BRITOMART Then you accept your fate?
SAPPHO I don't accept it. I am my fate. Nobody accepts his fate.
BRITOMART Nobody except us. We who know how to smile.
SAPPHO What's so hard about that? It's part of your fate. But what does it mean?
BRITOMART It means accepting, and accepting oneself.
SAPPHO Yes, but what does it mean? How can you accept a force that seizes you and turns you into desire, into shuddering desire that struggles over a body, a man's or a girl's, like the foam between the rocks? And this body rejects you and crushes you, and you fall and long to embrace the rock, to accept it. Sometimes you are the rock yourself, and the foam and the tumult are twisting and turning at your feet. No one is ever at peace. How can one accept all this?
BRITOMART You have to accept it. You tried to run away, Sappho, and what are you now? A bit of frothing wave.
SAPPHO But don't you feel it, Britomart, this languor, this deep tidal unrest? Everything here is torn and tormented endlessly. Even dead things go on struggling.
BRITOMART You should know the sea, Sappho. You came from an island.
SAPPHO Oh Britomart, even when I was a child it frightened me. That ceaseless life is monotonous, sad . . . There are no words for the weariness of it.
BRITOMART Once on my island I saw people coming and going. There were women like you, Sappho, women who lived for love. They never looked sad or tired to me.
SAPPHO I know, Britomart, I know. But did you follow them on their journeys? There was one woman who hanged herself from her own roof beam in a foreign land. And one who woke up one morning on a rock, abandoned. And the others, so many others, from all the islands and all the lands who went down to the sea. Some were enslaved, some were tortured, some killed their own children. There were some who toiled night and day, and some who never touched solid land again and became things, creatures of the sea.
BRITOMART But Helen--she came out unscathed, you said?
SAPPHO Sowing fire and slaughter. She smiled at no one, she lied to no one. She was a woman worthy of the sea. But Britomart, do you remember who was born over there?
BRITOMART Who do you mean?
SAPPHO There is one island you've never seen. Every morning when the sun rises, it touches this island first.
BRITOMART Oh Sappho.
SAPPHO It was there she sprang from the sea, the goddess who has no name, the tormented, restless one who smiles to herself.
BRITOMART But she doesn't suffer. She is a great goddess.
SAPPHO And everything that is torn and tortured in the sea is her substance and her breath. Have you seen her, Britomart?
BRITOMART Oh Sappho, don't ask me. I'm only one of the little nymphs.
SAPPHO You must have seen her, then?
BRITOMART In her presence we all run away. Don't speak of her, child.
Fragments of Sappho
translated by Anne Carson
36
I long and seek after
38
you burn me
49
I loved you, Atthis, once long ago
a little child you seemed to me and graceless
51
I don’t know what to don two states of mind in me
105A
as the sweetapple reddens on a high branchn high on the highest branch and the applepickers forgot—nno, not forgot: were unable to reach
不能否認有很高的觀看門檻 幾乎是將語言&符號學和eisenstein的蒙太奇理論影像化 比如借助聲畫結合在「聲音能指」和「隨機的影像」之間建立聯繫 通過「反覆」在人腦裡強化這種隨機的聯繫 於是觀眾短暫習得一種新型的語言（但不完整因為只學了幾個單詞 for me not the honey not the bee）接著打亂原句順序將單詞隨機排列組合成新句。但其實不知道語言學理論也不影響經歷上述過程，因為這模仿的就是人類習得語言的歷程：建立聲音/文字和圖像之間的聯繫。
theory condensed但不死氣沈沈Sappho的詩有很大功勞。喜歡兩個巧思：1. 用實物的白布作為影像a與影像b之間的隔板（cut）2. 用同樣實在的紙張作為最後的credit board，這個credit比《可憐的東西》的credit還要賞心悅目……好像在說影像與書本間也有common ground。
想起高達後期作品 尤其《notre musique》。
整部電影對我來說像director’s attempt at integrating poetry into the practice of evryday life（開門、下樓梯、按電鈕……）或者 attempt at discovering the poetics of everyday life。
能指与所指（文字与现实；历史与当下；文学与纪实）：当失恋的“我”通过帕维泽看萨福，最后回头“完成”帕维泽的命运的同时完成自己，于是再完成了作为主题的萨福的一种不确定性。我们看到二人对话之外的读者（第三人），经历现代看到古代与当代的相似；微笑、命运、相信、苦难，当意义占据了荧幕后，留下的是流动与破碎构成的整体。就像结尾向抛弃了以情欲的终极而作为“随机”的萨福所说的再见。
电影最后的台词说明“萨福自杀的已故传说并不真实，一个浪漫的传奇，也许被一些古希腊剧作家创造，并由奥维德等其他诗人传播”，她并没有爱上Phaon这位年轻的摆渡人男性（趁这个机会去读了一篇有关萨福的论文），古希腊喜剧作家Menandros及之后的作家或许由于过于渴望了解萨福的生平，误解了萨福创作的以阿佛洛狄忒为主角爱欲其情人Phaon(Adonis)的诗歌，以为诗中的叙述者就是萨福本人。
（引自古典学者Spencer McDaniel的博客: https://talesoftimesforgotten.com/2021/08/14/was-sappho-really-a-lesbian/）
而帕维泽如娜塔利娅·金兹伯格《小美德》中的悼文《一个朋友的肖像》（Ritratto d'un amico）所写的一样，死在了自己思想的罗网的极致中：
“你看到了吗，布里托玛耳提斯？”帕维泽仿佛萨福，从恋爱的挫折推向自我命运的完成以对抗生存无常的焦虑。你有没有看到我向之祈求的阿佛洛狄忒？
然而——“你看到了吗，布里托玛耳提斯？”帕维泽，你有没有看到真实的萨福？你有没有看到那个虚无的萨福。失恋的“我”在欲望之中向萨福再见，因为你依然在构想未来的那些将被发现的诗句，我向构想这些未来之诗的你说声再见。世界于是从消极的虚无变成积极的开放，不安的忧虑者变成了曙光女神。
片尾轻松的音乐中，字幕的纸张翻过，在最后一张时笔触介入画面，镜头抬起，我们看到“微笑”着的现代的萨福，在Venerable Dawn后遥望最高的空枝（并没有苹果在那里，而阳光在那里）。
导演马蒂亚斯·皮涅罗在实验性的影像下带我们穿越了附加在萨福身上的死亡神话重新抵达萨福的文本与我们的现实，讲述了一个简单的“生活还将光明地继续”的道理，解构了我们在字里行间中来回穿梭的“苦难”，最终同样的诗句以新的方式降临在同样的现实。
Sea Foam
a chapter from Cesare Pavese’s “Dialoghi con Leucò”ntranslated by William Arrowsmith and D. S. Carne-Ross
Britomart, the Cretan and Minoan nymph, is mentioned in Callimachus. That Sappho was a Lesbian from Lesbos is regrettable, but far sadder is the dissatisfaction which made her throw herself into the Aegean sea. This sea is full of islands and it was on the most easterly of them, Cyprus, that Aphrodite the wave-born came to land. It was a sea that knew many tragic stories. Ariadne, Phaedra, Andromache, Helle, Scylla, Io, Cassandra, Medea--who does not remember their names? They all passed that way and some of them stayed there. Those waters, one might say, were drenched in sperm and tears.
(Sappho, Britomart)
SAPPHO It's boring here, Britomart, the sea is boring. You've been here for ages, aren't you sick of it?
BRITOMART You liked being alive better, I know. To become a curl of frothing wave isn't enough for you mortals. And yet men seek death, this death. Why did you drown yourself, Sappho?
SAPPHO I didn't know it was like this. I thought everything ended with that final jump. I thought the longing and the restlessness and the tumult would all be done with. The sea swallows, the sea annuls, I thought.
BRITOMART Everything dies in the sea, and comes to life again. You know now.
SAPPHO But you, Britomart, you were one of the nymphs. What did you want from the sea?
BRITOMART From the sea? Nothing. I lived on the mountains. A man pursued me and I ran away. You don't know our woods, Sappho, how tall they are. The mountain falls away sheer, and the sea way below . . . I jumped, to save myself.
SAPPHO To save yourself? But why?
BRITOMART To get away from the man who was pursuing me. To be myself. I had to, Sappho.
SAPPHO Had to? Was he so horrid?
BRITOMART I don't know, I didn't see him. All I knew was that I had to get away.
SAPPHO But why? I mean, to leave your daily life, the hills and the fields? To leave the earth and become sea foam--all this because you had to. Had to what? Surely all this meant something to you, weren't these things part of you too?
BRITOMART But Sappho dear, it was desire and longing that made you what you are now. And yet you blame me for running away.
SAPPHO You weren't mortal, you knew that there is no escaping.
BRITOMART But I didn't try to escape from desire, Sappho. I have what I desire. I was a nymph of the rocks, now I am a sea nymph. This is how we're made. Our life is leaf and trunk, spring water, sea foam. We play with the surface of things, we don't run away from them. We change. This is our desire, this is our destiny. Our one terror is that a man should possess us, catch us. That would be the end of everything. You know Calypso?
SAPPHO I've heard of her.
BRITOMART Calypso let herself get caught by a man. And nothing could help her any more. For years she never left her cave. They all came, Leucothea, Callianeira, Cymodoce, Oreithyia, Amphitrite . . . They spoke to her, they carried her off and saved her. But it took years; and first the man had to go.
SAPPHO I can understand Calypso. But I don't understand why she listened to you. If she'd really been in love, how could she have given way?
BRITOMART Oh Sappho, mortal wave, will you never learn what it is to smile?
SAPPHO I knew when I was alive. And I went in search of death.
BRITOMART But that's not smiling, Sappho. Smiling means living like a wave, like a leaf, accepting your fate. It means dying in one form and being reborn in another. It means accepting--accepting oneself, accepting fate.
SAPPHO And did you accept, Britomart?
BRITOMART I ran away, Sappho. It's easier for the nymphs . . .
SAPPHO I knew how to run away too, when I was alive. My way was to look into things, into the tumult, and turn it into speech, into song. But fate is something quite different.
BRITOMART Why, Sappho? Fate is joy, and when you sang your song you were happy.
SAPPHO I was never happy, Britomart. Desire is not song. It destroys, and burns, like a snake, like the wind.
BRITOMART But have you ever known mortal women who lived peacefully in desire and tumult?
SAPPHO None. Wait, yes, perhaps . . . But not mortal women like Sappho. You were still a mountain nymph, I wasn't yet born, when a woman crossed this sea, a mortal woman, who lived always in storm and strife. Perhaps she was in peace. She killed, destroyed, blinded. She was like a goddess always herself, unchanging. Perhaps she didn't even have to smile. She was lovely, no fool, and around her there was nothing but fighting and death. Men fought and died for her, Britomart, asking only for her name to be joined to theirs for a moment, for her name to be given to their living and dying. And they smiled for her. You know her--Helen, the daughter of Leda.
BRITOMART And she, was she happy?
SAPPHO At least she didn't run away, that much is certain. She was sufficient unto herself. She didn't ask what her fate was. Whoever had the will--and the strength--carried her off. For ten years she followed a hero; they took her away from him and married her to another man. He too lost her, countless men fought for her across the seas. Then the second man took her back and she lived with him, at peace. She was buried, and in Hades she knew still more men. She lied to no one, she smiled at no one. Perhaps she was happy.
BRITOMART And you envy this woman?
SAPPHO I envy no one. I wanted to die. It's not enough for me to be someone else, and if I can't be Sappho, I would sooner be nothing.
BRITOMART Then you accept your fate?
SAPPHO I don't accept it. I am my fate. Nobody accepts his fate.
BRITOMART Nobody except us. We who know how to smile.
SAPPHO What's so hard about that? It's part of your fate. But what does it mean?
BRITOMART It means accepting, and accepting oneself.
SAPPHO Yes, but what does it mean? How can you accept a force that seizes you and turns you into desire, into shuddering desire that struggles over a body, a man's or a girl's, like the foam between the rocks? And this body rejects you and crushes you, and you fall and long to embrace the rock, to accept it. Sometimes you are the rock yourself, and the foam and the tumult are twisting and turning at your feet. No one is ever at peace. How can one accept all this?
BRITOMART You have to accept it. You tried to run away, Sappho, and what are you now? A bit of frothing wave.
SAPPHO But don't you feel it, Britomart, this languor, this deep tidal unrest? Everything here is torn and tormented endlessly. Even dead things go on struggling.
BRITOMART You should know the sea, Sappho. You came from an island.
SAPPHO Oh Britomart, even when I was a child it frightened me. That ceaseless life is monotonous, sad . . . There are no words for the weariness of it.
BRITOMART Once on my island I saw people coming and going. There were women like you, Sappho, women who lived for love. They never looked sad or tired to me.
SAPPHO I know, Britomart, I know. But did you follow them on their journeys? There was one woman who hanged herself from her own roof beam in a foreign land. And one who woke up one morning on a rock, abandoned. And the others, so many others, from all the islands and all the lands who went down to the sea. Some were enslaved, some were tortured, some killed their own children. There were some who toiled night and day, and some who never touched solid land again and became things, creatures of the sea.
BRITOMART But Helen--she came out unscathed, you said?
SAPPHO Sowing fire and slaughter. She smiled at no one, she lied to no one. She was a woman worthy of the sea. But Britomart, do you remember who was born over there?
BRITOMART Who do you mean?
SAPPHO There is one island you've never seen. Every morning when the sun rises, it touches this island first.
BRITOMART Oh Sappho.
SAPPHO It was there she sprang from the sea, the goddess who has no name, the tormented, restless one who smiles to herself.
BRITOMART But she doesn't suffer. She is a great goddess.
SAPPHO And everything that is torn and tortured in the sea is her substance and her breath. Have you seen her, Britomart?
BRITOMART Oh Sappho, don't ask me. I'm only one of the little nymphs.
SAPPHO You must have seen her, then?
BRITOMART In her presence we all run away. Don't speak of her, child.
Fragments of Sappho
translated by Anne Carson
36
I long and seek after
38
you burn me
49
I loved you, Atthis, once long ago
a little child you seemed to me and graceless
51
I don’t know what to don two states of mind in me
105A
as the sweetapple reddens on a high branchn high on the highest branch and the applepickers forgot—nno, not forgot: were unable to reach
146
neither for me honey nor the honey bee
字眼从海浪中升起
它不组成诗
就像相遇和死亡一开始就命中注定
不组成爱情
眼睛带来泉水
耳道涌进泡沫
思绪是我能给你的破败小城上
挂的一弯月亮
和一群人的悲哀
我知道这一些
闪亮的竖琴得以表演一首花片下的诗
我渴望而担心
繁复的词句咏叹
诗咏叹
字眼逃走，变成
腐烂的果实嗵一声落下
低于最低的草地
谁若遗漏了它们
就遗漏了最初的残篇
谁就够不着任何地方
说：“毁灭使人盲目。”
如同平静使人盲目
海平面就是这样
一分为二地度量出残缺与幸存、
玫瑰与菊花、
流溢的爱和没有爱
女人捧着一本书
用强劲的疼痛
捧出破碎以后的世界
正如曾经眼睛和耳道呼唤出
朦胧离开的月亮
“奔向你。”
黄色钥匙插进锁孔
食指长按银钮
一颗柑橘翻滚于手掌和半空之间半米高
有两个想法、四个想法诞生
斑斓 闪烁
令人景仰的黎明
乐曲 建筑
又及复生的镜子
忘记我；
忘记我。
不要忘记我——
不要忘记我
2025.3.7
AC
不能否認有很高的觀看門檻 幾乎是將語言&符號學和eisenstein的蒙太奇理論影像化 比如借助聲畫結合在「聲音能指」和「隨機的影像」之間建立聯繫 通過「反覆」在人腦裡強化這種隨機的聯繫 於是觀眾短暫習得一種新型的語言（但不完整因為只學了幾個單詞 for me not the honey not the bee）接著打亂原句順序將單詞隨機排列組合成新句。但其實不知道語言學理論也不影響經歷上述過程，因為這模仿的就是人類習得語言的歷程：建立聲音/文字和圖像之間的聯繫。
theory condensed但不死氣沈沈Sappho的詩有很大功勞。喜歡兩個巧思：1. 用實物的白布作為影像a與影像b之間的隔板（cut）2. 用同樣實在的紙張作為最後的credit board，這個credit比《可憐的東西》的credit還要賞心悅目……好像在說影像與書本間也有common ground。
想起高達後期作品 尤其《notre musique》。
整部電影對我來說像director’s attempt at integrating poetry into the practice of evryday life（開門、下樓梯、按電鈕……）或者 attempt at discovering the poetics of everyday life。
看不懂但很striking的詩句：
1. play with the surface of things.
2. -do you accept your fate? -i dont. i am.
3. two are my thoughts.
某個時刻差一點沈入睡眠，但又做不到完全沈進去
#ICA 影片改编自Cesare Pavese于1947年出版的诗集《Dialoghi con Leucò》中的一章“Sea Foam”，讲述了古希腊女诗人Sappho和仙女Britomartis在海边相遇并且产生的一系列对话。
角色开场重命名那部分非常有意思，两位角色通过现代方式达成了Sappho和Britomartis的重塑，再利用诗把他们交织在一起实在是浪漫，而片中的一些重复就如同那逃不开的宿命，这结尾对照了两位女性的宿命也呼应了Pavese的命运。
视听上，碎片化的视觉呈现效果是极其惊人的，蒙太奇的使用非常棒，尤其是大量空镜的呈现，还有利用35mm胶片与16mm胶片两种不同的胶片质感呈现出那不同的时代对话，空镜海浪冲刷海滩的泡沫，阳光下的绿树，那近乎90度仰拍到旋转的悬崖都能帮我带入到那诗句和神话中。片中重复的场景我觉得可以理解为诗句的视觉符号化，那一句句诗变成了那转不开的门锁，喷着水的喷泉，地下的蜜蜂涂鸦和一波波冲击的海浪。当然到结尾处这些画面也都慢慢的被补全。片中最美的肯定是在诗上一笔笔勾勒出的一副美丽诗中场景。电影中大量自然的声音与诗句独白结合，呈现出的张弛有度的感觉很好，尤其是海浪打在岩石上仿佛一种咆哮，诗句中蕴含的力量则比这股海浪还有强大。
影片像是一部散文诗电影，最厉害的不是整体呈现的先锋性，而是以整部电影呈现出视觉的诗意和与观众互动的形式呈现的诗。最震撼的一幕是诗集中的句子一遍遍的重复后被符号化刻入观众记忆中后的无声处理，让画面的重组让句子也重组后在观众的内心中响起实在是太牛了。
影片中的画作《维纳斯的诞生》印象还是比较深刻，关于创造。
看完出来发现今天是最后一场…想二刷重温的机会都没有，可惜可惜。