ὦ ἄνα, Λητοῦς υἱέ, Διὸς τέκος, οὔποτε σεῖο
λήσομαι ἀρχόμενος οὐδ’ ἀποπαυόμενος,
ἀλλ’ αἰεὶ πρῶτον σὲ καὶ ὕστατον ἔν τε μέσοισιν
ἀείσω· σὺ δέ μοι κλῦθι καὶ ἐσθλὰ δίδου. 4
Tyler, p.23.
1. ὦ excl. oh, goes with vocative, sometimes nominative. ἄναξ ἄνακτος ὁ, king, leader; ἄνα is a particular vocative used only of gods. Λητώ, gen. Λητοῦς Leto, mother of Apollo. τέκος εος τό child. οὔποτε not ever, never. σεῖο 2nd sing. pronoun, genitive, object of λανθάνω in the next line.
2. λανθάνω, λήσω, ἔλαθον, λέληθα escape, avoid or elude attention or notice; in the middle, forget. ἄρχω to begin in active and middle; in active, may also mean to lead. ἀπο‐παύω to stop, to restrain in middle, to stop (oneself).
3. αἰεί always, forever. πρῶτος η ον first, here, neuter acting as an adverb. ὕστατος η ον last, again, neuter acting as adverb. μέσος η ον in the middle of... can be used in the plural with the same sense, which we have here.
Note that this line gives a great example of the "law of increasing members." When giving a list of things, poets all over the Indo-Eurpoean zone (India to Ireland) will usually give an epithet or larger phrase to the last element, "A and B and blue-eyed C." Here for the last phrase, ἔν τε μέσοισιν, a simple μέσσῳ would do for meaning. The larger phrase gives a more satisfying conlcusion to the list.
4. ἀείδω sing. *κλύω, ‐, ἔκλυον hear; perceive, know; listen; the form κλῦθι is the 2nd singular aorist imperative. ἐσθλός ή όν noble; good, worthy; fine. δίδωμι to give; δίδου is the 2nd singular present imperative.
Note how this last line begins and ends. The first word, ἀείσω I will sing is what the Greek poet does. The poet expects recompense, either from a patron, or from the god being hymned. So, this last line is framed by this relationship: ἀείσω ... δίδου I will praise you, you give.