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90

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

As the sweet apple blushes on the end of the bough, the very end of the bough which gatherers missed, nay, missed not, but could not reach.

 

At the end of the bough--its uttermost end,
Missed by the harvesters, ripens the apple,
Nay, not overlooked, but far out of reach,
     So with all best things.

Quoted by the Scholiast on Hermogenes and elsewhere. The "sweet-apple" to which Sappho refers was probably the result of a a graft of apple on quince.


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