Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Plumptre 1878).djvu/163

Rh And yet around the precinct all in vain

I search, and fail to find

Where now his foot abides.

[ shows himself.

Œdip. I am the man; for by the voice I see,

As runs the adage.

Chor. Ah me! ah me! most dread to look upon,

Most dread to hear art thou.

Œdip. Do not, I pray you, deem me a transgressor.

Chor. Great Zeus, our shield, who may this old man be?

Œdip. Not one to highest place

Of fair good fortune born,

Ye rulers of the land.

This show I all too plain, or had not crept,

Trusting to others' eyes,

Nor, mighty once, had come to harbour here

With anchors poor and weak.

Chor. Ah me! ah me! and wast thou born, alas!

With those poor, sightless eyes!

Worn out with many a woe,

And, as one well may guess,

Worn with age too; but for my part, at least,

Thou shalt not bring fresh curses on thyself;

Too far thou goest, too far.

But that thou rush not on

Through voiceless, grass-grown grove,

Where blends with rivulet of honeyed stream,

The cup of waters clear,

Of this beware, Ο man, weighed down with woe.

Bestir thyself, depart;

The distance hinders us.