Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Plumptre 1878).djvu/312

214 I see the marks of flowing streams of milk

New poured, and lo! my father's bier was crowned

With garlands of all flowers that deck the fields;

And, seeing it, I wondered, and looked round,

Lest any man should still be hovering near;

And when I saw that all the place was calm,

I went yet nearer to the mound, and there

I saw upon the topmost point of all

A tress of hair, fresh severed from the head.

And when poor I beheld it, in my soul

A once-familiar image stirs the thought

That here I saw a token true from him

Whom most I love, Orestes. In my hands

I take it, uttering no ill-omened cries,

But straight mine eyes were filled with tears of joy;

And then and now I know with equal faith

This precious gift can come from none but him;

Whose task is this but either mine or thine?

And I, I know, have had no hand in it,

Nor yet hast thou; how else, when thou 'rt forbid

E'en to the Gods to go from 'neath this roof

Except at cost of tears? Nor does her heart,

Our mother's, love to do such things as these;

Nor could she, doing it, have 'scaped our view.

No! These tomb-offerings from Orestes come.

Take courage, sister dear! The same drear fate

Stands not for ever to the same men comrade:

Till now it frowned on us; but lo! to-day

Shall be of countless good the harbinger.

Elec. Ah me! How much thy madness moves my pity!

Chrys. What! Speak I not a thing that gives thee joy?

Elec. Thou know'st not where thou art in fact or thought.