5
ἀμφὶ δ᾽ ὔδωρ
ψῦχρον ὤνεμος κελάδει δἰ ὔσδων
μαλίνων, αἰθυσσομέμων δὲ φύλλων
κῶμα κατάρρει.
And by the cool stream the breeze murmurs through apple branches and slumber pours down from quivering leaves.
By the cool water the breeze murmurs, rustling
Through apple branches, while from quivering leaves
Streams down deep slumber.
The sound of the words, the repetition of long vowels, particularly ω, the poetic imagery of the whole and the drowsy cadence of the last two words give this fragment a combination of qualities probably not surpassed in any language.
Κῶμα is something more than ordinary sleep; it is deeper with a quality of oblivion in it, and so, differs from ὕπνος, the more ordinary term. Poe in the “Haunted Palace” approaches this, when he writes:
Banners—yellow, glorious, golden,
On its roof did float and flow.
(This, all this was in the olden
Time long ago.)
