Thanks Allen, you're a superstar.
You've also solved a puzzle for me as when I initially moved beyond the paperback & looked briefly on the internet I noticed little markers/tags (fr.1 etc -
as in this page) which I thought would be some kind of citation, but wasn't sure quite what. These must be the source text number.
Either way, I think my particular issue is resolved. I don't think it's Sappho. I've got my hands on a full copy of 'Dictee' now (it's a fascinating piece of work) & the epigraph reads:
May I write words more naked than flesh, stronger than bone, more resilient than sinew, sensitive than nerve.
Sappho
So, no tag/marker. And the book itself plays with language, with stories, with punctuation and structure. It's part of the form of the book. My guess it will be Theresa Hak Kyung Cha's uses of Sappho (and the idea of an epigraph) as part of the overall book's structure and sense-making.
Pragmatically, I've moved on. I have to - no time to pause. There are some wonderful lines in 'Dictee' about Mother Tongue which are perfect for my purposes, and there are plenty of other lines from Sappho I can use, too.
The world of quotations is crazy and beautiful and weird. Yesterday was Anais Nin, who is meant to have said:
We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are
Which she did, in Seduction of the Minotaur, whilst attributing it to the Talmud, which
it probably doesn't come from although the internet thinks it does, although it's also attributed (on the internet) to Kant.
Right, enough idle flim-flam. Back to work for me.
Thanks again,
Sarah-Jane