Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Plumptre 1878).djvu/148

50 Chorus. Ah, wretched one, alike in soul and doom,

I fain could wish that I had never known thee.

Œdip. Ill fate be his who from the fetters freed

The child upon the hills,

And rescued me from death,

And saved me,—thankless boon!

Ah! had I died but then,

Nor to my friends nor me had been such woe.

Chorus. I, too, could fain wish that.

Œdip. Yes; then I had not been

My father's murderer:

Nor had men pointed to me as the man

Wedded with her who bore him.

But now all godless, born of impious stock,

In incest joined with her who gave me birth;—

Yea, if there be an evil worse than all,

It falls on Œdipus!

Chorus. I may not say that thou art well-advised,

For better wert thou dead than living blind.

Œdip. Persuade me not, nor counsel give to show

That what I did was not the best to do.

I know not with what eyes, in Hades dark,

To look on mine own father or my mother,

When I against them both, alas! have done

Deeds for which strangling were too light a doom.

My children's face, forsooth, was sweet to see,

Their birth being what it was; nay, nay, not so

To these mine eyes, nor yet this, nor tower,

Nor sacred shrines of Gods whence I, who stood

Most honoured one in Thebes, myself have banished,

Commanding all to thrust the godless forth,

Him whom the Gods do show accursed, the stock

Of Laios old. And could I dare to look,

Such dire pollution fixing on myself,