Page:Sophocles - Seven Plays, 1900.djvu/197

1164–1197]

How thou hast ruined me! Thou hast indeed,

Dear brother! Then receive me to thyself,

Hide me in this thy covering, there to dwell,

Me who am nothing, with thy nothingness,

For ever! Yea, when thou wert here above,

I ever shared with thee in all, and now

I would not have thee shut me from thy tomb.

Oh! let me die and follow thee! the dead,

My mind assures me now. have no more pain.

. Electra, think! Thou hadst a mortal sire,

And mortal was thy brother. Grieve not far.

. O me! What shall I speak, or which way turn

The desperate word? I cannot hold my tongue.

. What pain o’ercomes thee? Wherefore speak’st thou so?

. Can this be famed Electra I behold?

. No other. In sad case, as you may see.

. Ah! deep indeed was this calamity!

. Is’t possible that thou shouldst grieve for me?

. O ruined form! abandoned to disgrace!

. ’Tis me you mean, stranger, I feel it now.

. Woe ’s me! Untrimmed for bridal, hapless maid!

. Why this fixed gaze, O stranger! that deep groan?

. How all unknowing was I of mine ill!

. What thing hath passed to make it known to thee?

. The sight of thee attired with boundless woe.

. And yet thine eye sees little of my pain.

. Can aught be still more hateful to be seen?

. I have my dwelling with the murderers—

. Of whom? What evil would thy words disclose?

. Of him who gave me birth. I am their slave.

. Whose power compels thee to this sufferance?

. One called my mother, most unmotherly.

. How? by main force, or by degrading shames?

. By force and shames, and every kind of evil.

. And is there none to succour or prevent?

. None. Him I had, you give me here in dust.