Page:Writings of Henry David Thoreau (1906) v5.djvu/406

364 Pr. What matters which? For these things are not to be told.

Io. By a wife will he be driven from the throne?

Pr. Ay, she will bring forth a son superior to his father.

Io. Is there no refuge for him from this fate?

Pr. None, surely, till I may be released from bonds.

Io. Who, then, is to release thee, Zeus unwilling?

Pr. He must be some one of thy descendants.

Io. How sayest thou? that my child will deliver thee from ills?

Pr. Third of thy race after ten other births.

Io. This oracle is not yet easy to be guessed.

Pr. But do not seek to understand thy sufferings.

Io. First proffering gain to me, do not then withhold it.

Pr. I'll grant thee one of two relations.

Io. What two propose, and give to me my choice.

Pr. I give; choose whether thy remaining troubles

I shall tell thee clearly, or him that will release me.

Ch. Consent to do her the one favor,

Me the other, nor deem us undeserving of thy words;

To her indeed tell what remains of wandering,

And to me, who will release; for I desire this. Pr. Since ye are earnest, I will not resist

To tell the whole, as much as ye ask for.

To thee first, Io, vexatious wandering I will tell,

Which engrave on the remembering tablets of the mind.

When thou hast passed the flood boundary of continents,

Towards the flaming orient sun-traveled