Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Plumptre 1878).djvu/284

186 Sorrow's great burden in the balance cast.

Chor. Ο child, Electra dear,

Child of a mother guilty above all,

Why dost thou ever wear thyself away

In ceaseless, wailing cry,

For him thy father, Agamemnon, slain,

Long years ago by godless subtlety,

Thy mother's, steeped in guile,

By coward hand betrayed?

May he who did the deed

(If this my wish be right)

Perish for evermore!

Elec. Offspring of noble souls,

Ye come to soothe my woes;

I know it, yea, I comprehend it all,

Nothing escapes my ken;

And yet I will not leave my task undone,

Nor cease to wail my hapless father's fate.

Ye then who give me every token kind

Of true affection's bond,

Leave me, I pray, ah! leave

To vent my sorrow thus.

Chor. And yet with groans and prayers,

From Hades' pool, where all that live must go,

Thy sire thou can'st not raise, but passest on,

Lamenting ceaselessly,

From evil one might bear

To woe that baffles every remedy,

Where respite from our sorrows there is none.

Why, why, I ask, dost thou

Still in thy spirit seek

Those evils hard to bear?

Elec. Childish and weak is he

Who learneth to forget