What does it mean?
Patience and gradual ripening usually lead to a better result than haste.
Closest English saying: Good things take time; Rome wasn’t built in a day.
What does it literally say?
Αγάλι αγάλι γίνεται η αγουρίδα μέλι
Agáli agáli yínete i agourída méli
“Slowly, slowly the unripe grape becomes honey.”
The «αγουρίδα» (agourída) is an unripe, sour grape: an image for something that needs time before it becomes valuable. «Αγάλι αγάλι» is an old way of saying “slowly, slowly”.
How is it used?
“You won’t learn a language in a week. Slowly, slowly the unripe grape becomes honey.”
Where does it come from?
Traditional Greek folk usage. eipane has not documented a first author or a first written record for this saying.
This is an English edition of the Greek entry, which remains the reference version. The English text was written from the Greek entry with the help of AI tools and checked against it. Suggest a correction ↗