This poem is an encouragement to cast away anxiety, and place our trust in Providence. It thus anticipates the Parable of the Lily by six hundred years, as well as countless other master-works of literature and philosophy. Its wisdom is framed as an admonition familiarly given to an unspecified person, most likely a relative of the poet. The observation is also made that our best times often rise out of our worst, or what appear to be our worst.
Charaxus (line 1) was a brother of Sappho; he was a merchant. A separate brother (Larichus) is mentioned in line 18. A daimon or daemon (line 14) was a sort of guardian spirit or angel.
My translation is free to use under CC BY 4.0 (attribution only).
Transcript:
But you are constantly chattering, "Charaxus has come, with a ship full of wares!". Things like _that_, I suppose, Zeus knows all about,—and all the gods besides! _You_, however, ought not to think of them. But instead you should send me, even order me, to pray sincerely to queen Hera, for Charaxus to arrive here with a safe ship, and to find us safe and sound. All other outcomes, let us turn over to the divine powers (daimones). For fair winds from great storms quickly rise. Those whose daimon the king of Olympus is pleased to change into a helper out of troubles; those people, I say, are happy and supremely blessed. And as for us, if Larichus should raise his head, and at long last become a man; from a grievous heaviness of heart, we also should be quickly freed.
ἀλλ' ἄϊ θρύλησθα Χάραξον ἔλθην
νᾶϊ σὺν πλήαι. τὰ μὲν οἴομαι Ζεῦς
οἶδε σύμπαντές τε θέοι· σὲ δ' οὐ χρῆ
ταῦτα νόησθαι,
ἀλλὰ καὶ πέμπην ἔμε καὶ κέλεσθαι
πόλλα λίσσεσθαι βασίληαν Ἤραν
ἐξίκεσθαι τυίδε σάαν ἄγοντα
νᾶα Χάραξον
κἄμμ' ἐπεύρην ἀρτέμεας. τὰ δ' ἄλλα
πάντα δαιμόνεσσιν ἐπιτρόπωμεν·
εὔδιαι γὰρ ἐκ μεγάλαν ἀήταν
αἶψα πέλονται
τῶν κε βόλληται βασίλευς Ὀλύμπω
δαίμον' ἐκ πόνων ἐπάρωγον ἤδη
περτρόπην, κῆνοι μάκαρες πέλονται
καὶ πολύολβοι·
κἄμμες, αἴ κε τὰν κεφάλαν ἀέρρη
Λάριχος καὶ δή ποτ' ἄνηρ γένηται,
καὶ μάλ' ἐκ πόλλαν βαρυθυμίαν κεν
αἶψα λύθειμεν.
