But you always chatter that Charaxus is coming, His ship laden with cargo. That much, I reckon, only Zeus Knows, and all the gods; but you, you should not Think these thoughts,
Just send me along, and command me To offer many prayers to Queen Hera That Charaxus should arrive here, with His ship intact,
And find us safe. For the rest, Let us turn it all over to higher powers; For periods of calm quickly follow after Great squalls.
They whose fortune the king of Olympus wishes Now to turn from trouble to [ … ] are blessed and lucky beyond compare.
As for us, if Larichus should [ … ] his head And at some point become a man, Then from full many a despair Would we be swiftly freed.
The poem above, now termed the 'Brothers' poem is from a papyrus that has been recently confirmed as belonging to Sappho, whose fragmented body of work has remained largely unchanged for years, with most of her nine books of poetry thought lost to time.
Charaxos and Larichos were described by Herodotus as Sappho's brothers, but it wasn't until the discovery of this text that there was any corroboration from her works.
The poem's original text can be found here. There is also a news article detailing the discovery of the Egyptian papyrus that contained the new works, as well as Dr. Obbink's ongoing work which is linked here.
