Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Plumptre 1878).djvu/259

Rh To join mine own, of whom the greater part

Among the dead doth Persephassa hold;

And I, of all the last and saddest, wend

My way below, life's little span unfilled.

And yet I go, and feed myself with hopes

That I shall meet them, by my father loved,

Dear to my mother, well-beloved of thee,

Thou darling brother: I, with these my hands,

Washed each dear corpse, arrayed you, poured libations,

In rites of burial; and in care for thee,

Thy body, Polyneikes, honouring,

I gain this recompense. [And yet in sight

Of all that rightly judge the deed was good;

I had not done it had I come to be

A mother with her children,—had not dared,

Though 'twere a husband dead that mouldered there,

Against my country's will to bear this toil.

And am I asked what law constrained me thus?

I answer, had I lost a husband dear,

I might have had another; other sons

By other spouse, if one were lost to me;

But when my father and my mother sleep

In Hades, then no brother more can come.

And therefore, giving thee the foremost place,

I seemed in Creon's eyes, Ο brother dear,

To sin in boldest daring. Therefore now

He leads me, having taken me by force,

Cut off from marriage bed and marriage song,

Untasting wife's true joy, or mother's bliss,

With infant at her breast, but all forlorn,

Bereaved of friends, in utter misery,

Alive, I tread the chambers of the dead.]

What law of Heaven have I transgressed against?

What use for me, ill-starred one, still to look