Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1898) v3.djvu/106

78 Shall I first give sorrow's oblation?

Shall I cast them, mine offerings, there

Where the twin breasts are of my mother,

Where a suckling babe I have lain,

Or on ghastliest wounds of a brother

Cruelly slain?

Come forth of thy chambers, blind father;

Ancient, thy sorrows lay bare,

Who didst cause mist-darkness to gather

On thine own eyes, thou who dost wear

Weariful days out. O hearken,

Whose old feet grope through the hall,

Who in gloom that no night-tide can darken

On thy pallet dost fall.

Enter Oedipus.

Why hast thou drawn me, my child, to the light,

Whose sightless hand to thine hand's prop clings,

Who was bowed on my bed amid chambers of night,—

Hast drawn by a wail through tears that rings,—

A white-haired shape, like a phantom that fades

On the sight, or a ghost from the underworld shades,

Or a dream that hath wings?

Woe is the word of my tidings to thee!

Father, thy sons behold no more

The light, nor thy wife, who aye upbore

Thy blind limbs tirelessly, tenderly,

O father, ah me!