Page:The Dramas of Aeschylus (Swanwick).djvu/302

232 By voiceless children of the unsullied deep.

Mourneth each dwelling, left forlorn;

Parents bereaved, and elders mourn

These heaven-sent griefs, and weep

Their sum of woe.

Already through all Asia's land

None owneth Persia's sway;

None, at their sovereign lord's command,

Henceforth will tribute pay:

Nor, falling prostrate, own his right

Them to enthrall; for kingly might

Hath passed away.

No more the tongue is guarded now

By mortals; from this hour,

Free are the throng to speak, I trow,

Since loosed the yoke of power;

And Aias' sea-encircled isle,

In blood-stained fields holds what erewhile

Was Persia's flower.

My friends, whoso is versed in sorrow, knows

That when on mortals comes a surge of ills,

Prone are they then to fear; but when the tide