Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Jebb 1917).djvu/216

204 still no place is conscious of a secret that I share.—Hark—a sudden noise!

Second Semi-Chor. 'Tis we, the shipmates of your voyage.

1. How goes it?

2. All the westward side of the ships hath been paced.

1. Well, hast thou found aught?

2. Only much toil, and nothing more to see.

1. And clearly the man hath not been seen either along the path that fronts the morning ray.

. O for tidings from some toiling fisher, busy about his sleepless quest,—or from some nymph of the Olympian heights, or of the streams that flow toward Bosporus,—if anywhere such hath seen the man of fierce spirit roaming! 'Tis hard that I, the wanderer who have toiled so long, cannot come near him with prospered course, but fail to descry where the sick man is.

. Ah me, ah me!

. Whose cry broke from the covert of the wood near us?

. Ah, miserable!

. I see the spear-won bride, hapless Tecmessa: her soul is steeped in the anguish of that wail.

. I am lost, undone, left desolate, my friends!

. What ails thee?

. Here lies our Ajax, newly slain,—a sword buried and sheathed in his corpse.

. Alas for my hopes of return! Ah, prince, thou