An anonymous private collector had the then-unknown historic poems in his collection, believed to be the ancient poetess Sappho's work, written on an ancient papyrus as a copy in the 3rd century AD. The collector showed the poems to Dr. Dirk Obbink, a classicist at Oxford University, who immediately noted the fragments' importance and asked to publish their text in a paper.
While Sappho was hugely popular and well known in her time, the vast majority of her work has been lost over the centuries, increasing the importance of this find.
The poems can be found via The Guardian and Slate, with differing translations.
The Guardian's translation of the larger poem fragment is offered below:
Poem 1:
[ … ]
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment