Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1894) v1.djvu/114

82 Come, as a friend will I commune with thee—

Yet what fair dealing should I hope from thee?—

Yet will I: questioned, baser shalt thou show.

Now, whither turn I?—to my father's house,

Which, with my country, I for thee cast off?

To Pelias' hapless daughters?—Graciously

Their father's slayer would they welcome home!

For thus it is: a foe am I become

To mine own house. Whom I should ne'er have harmed,

For grace to thee I made mine enemies.

So then midst Hellas' daughters hast thou made me

Blest in return for all: in thee have I—

O wretched I!—a wondrous spouse and leal,

If from the land cast forth I pass to exile

Forlorn of friends, alone with children lone.

A proud reproach for our new bridegroom this—

In poverty thy babes, thy saviour, wander!

O Zeus, ah wherefore hast thou given to men

Plain signs for gold which is but counterfeit,

But no assay-mark nature-graven shows

On man's form, to discern the base withal?

Awful is wrath, and past all balm of healing,

When they that once loved clash in feud of hate.

Needs must I be not ill at speech, meseems,

But, like the careful helmsman of a ship,

With close-reefed canvas run before the gale,