Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Plumptre 1878).djvu/150

52 Which neither earth, nor shower from heaven, nor light,

Can see and welcome. But with utmost speed

Convey me in; for nearest kin alone

Can meetly see and hear their kindred's ills.

Chorus. The man for what thou need'st is come in time,

Creon, to counsel, and to act, for now

He in thy stead is left our state's one guide.

Œdip. Ah, me! what language shall I hold to him,

What trust at his hands claim? In all the past

I showed myself to him most vile and base.

Creon. I have not come, Ο Œdipus, to scorn,

Nor to reproach thee for thy former crimes.

Œdip. Oh, by the Gods! since thou, beyond my hopes,

Dost come all noble unto me all base,

One favour grant. I seek thy good, not mine.

Creon. And what request seek'st thou so wistfully?

Œdip. Cast me with all thy speed from out this land,

Where nevermore a man may speak to me!

Creon. Be sure, I would have done so, but I wished

To learn what now the God will bid us do.

Œdip. The oracle was surely clear enough

That I the parricide, the pest, should die.

Creon. So ran the words. But in our present need

'Tis better to learn surely what to do.

Œdip. And will ye ask for one so vile as I?

Creon. Yea, thou, too, now would'st trust the voice of God.

Œdip. And this I charge thee, yea, and supplicate;

For her within, provide what tomb thou wilt,