Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Plumptre 1878).djvu/402

304 Aias. Ο ye paths of the wave!

Ο ye caves by the sea!

Ο thou glade by the shore!

Long time, long time my feet

On Troïa's soil ye kept;

But never, never more

Breathing the breath of life;

Let the wise hear and heed.

Ο streams, Scamandros' streams

Hard by, to Argives kind,

Never again shall ye see

This man who calls to you now,

Like whom (though great the vaunt,

Yet will I speak it out)

In all the army that from Hellas came,

Troïa no hero found:

Yet now I lie in this dishonoured plight.

Chor. I know not how to check thee in thy speech,

Nor yet permit it, whelmed in ills like these.

Aias. Ai! ai! who e'er had dreamt my name should be

So clear a sign and symbol for my woe?

For now 'tis mine to groan this "Ai, ai" forth,

Twice, yea, and thrice, such ills have come on me,

Whose father, head of all the conquering host,

Brought the chief trophies from fair Ida's shore,

And home returned, with highest glory crowned;

And I, his son, to that same Troïa come

With no less power, nor working with my hands

Less mighty deeds, am left to perish here,