Sappho: Quotations

Sappho (Pompeii fresco)

Sappho (7th-6th century BC)

“Like the sweet apple which reddens upon the topmost bough,
Atop on the topmost twig,
which the pluckers forgot, somehow,
Forget it not, nay; but got it not, for none could get it till now.”

(Translated by Dante Gabriel Rossetti)

Οἶον τὸ γλυκύμαλον ἐρεύθεται ἄκρῳ ἐπ᾽ ὔσδῳ
ἄκρον ἐπ᾽ ἀκροτάτῳ λελάθοντο δὲ μαλοδρόπνεσ,
οὐ μὰν ἐκλελάθοντ᾽, ἀλλ᾽ οὐκ ἐδύναντ᾽ ἐπίκεσθαι.

Fragment 105