Page:The Antigone of Sophocles (1911).djvu/54

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O Love, unconquered in fight, the rich thou dost raid;

Thou makest thy couch in the night on the cheeks of a maid;

And thou rangest over the sea, in the rural home;

And no one escapes thee where’er thou dost roam;

Neither god nor mortal man thy will can resist;

Thou assailest, inspiring with frenzy, the one thou dost list.

E’en the souls of the just to their ruin thou turnest astray:

’T is thou that this feud hast excited ’mong kinsmen to-day;

The love-light so clear in the eyes of the bride is victorious,

It sits high enthroned by the side of the laws ever glorious,

The unwritten laws acknowledged by men.—Aphrodite

Is working her will, invincible, mighty.

But I myself am carried amain

Past the bound of laws, and cannot restrain

The gush of the tears as I behold

Antigone passing now to the hall

Where Death receives and lodges all.

Antigone.

Ye behold me, citizens of my native land,

Setting forth on my last journey, to that strand

Where I gaze

A farewell to these rays

Of the sun, where the light I never again shall see;

Dread Hades, who layeth all men to sleep, doth lead

Me still living to Acheron’s shore; no marriage my meed,

And no song

To which bridals belong

Hath been mine, for Acheron’s bride I shall be.

Yea, but with glory and praise

Dost thou depart to end thy days,

Ne’er smitten with wasting disease,

Nor finding the wage of the sword; but to these

Who live in the silent home of the dead

Thou dost descend of thy own free will, unwed,