Page:Sophocles - Seven Plays, 1900.djvu/55

611–647] This was in the beginning, and shall be

Now and eternally,

Not here or there, but everywhere,

A law of misery that shall not spare.

For Hope, that wandereth wide, comforting many a head,

Entangleth many more with glamour of desire:

Unknowing they have trode the fire.

Wise was the famous word of one who said,

‘Evil oft seemeth goodness to the mind

An angry God doth blind.’

Few are the days that such as he

May live untroubled of calamity.

Lo, Haemon, thy last offspring, now is come,

Lamenting haply for the maiden’s doom.

Say, is he mourning o’er her young life lost,

Fiercely indignant for his bridal crossed?

. We shall know soon, better than seers could teach us.

Can it be so, my son, that thou art brought

By mad distemperature against thy sire,

On hearing of the irrevocable doom

Passed on thy promised bride? Or is thy love

Thy father’s, be his actions what they may?

. I am thine, father, and will follow still

Thy good directions; nor would I prefer

The fairest bride to thy wise government.

. That, O my son! should be thy constant mind,

In all to bend thee to thy father’s will.

Therefore men pray to have around their hearths

Obedient offspring, to requite their foes

With harm, and honour whom their father loves;

But he whose issue proves unprofitable,

Begets what else but sorrow to himself

And store of laughter to his enemies?