The musical language of this fragment has always haunted me, especially the second stanza. The ἐν δ’ ὔδωρ ψῦχρον κελάδει δι’ ὔσδων μαλίνων, creates a startling and sonorous spatial depth that for me is one of the most remarkable lines in Greek poetry.
Andrew Bellon
Come
to me from Krete,
to your sacred precinct
of graceful apple groves,
and altars of fragrant sacrifice.
Within,
cold water splashes
beyond apple branches,
and the place is all shadowy with roses.
A dreamless sleep falls
from the shimmering leaves.
Within
is a meadow where horses linger
with blossoms and spring flowers;
breezes blowing gently.
There,
Kyprian goddess,
mix our joy
with nectar in golden cups
and pour it out like wine.
Dugald Sutherland MacColl (British draftsman, 1859-1948) 1894 22.5 cm (diameter) Drawing after an Attic white-ground cup by the Pistoxenos Painter, provenance Kamiros, Rhodes, now in the collection of the British Museum, London [GR 1864.10-7.77 (Vase D 2)]. Published in Harrison, Jane Ellen and D.S. MacColl. Greek vase paintings; a selection of examples, with preface, introduction and descriptions. London: T.F. Unwin, 1894.
Translation by Andrew Bellon.
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