Castor: For Heaven never hates the noble in the end.
It is for the nameless multitude that life is hard.
It is for the nameless multitude that life is hard.
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Post 2.27.2013.8
Chorus: Mindless, all of you, who in the strength of spears
and the tearing edge win your valors
by war, thus stupidly trying
to halt the grief of the world.
For if bloody debate shall settle
the issue, never again
shall hate be gone out of the cities of men.
By hate they won the chambers of Priam's city;
they could have solved by reason and words
the quarrel, Helen, for you.
Now these are given to the Death God below.
and the tearing edge win your valors
by war, thus stupidly trying
to halt the grief of the world.
For if bloody debate shall settle
the issue, never again
shall hate be gone out of the cities of men.
By hate they won the chambers of Priam's city;
they could have solved by reason and words
the quarrel, Helen, for you.
Now these are given to the Death God below.
Post 2.27.2013.7
Theonoe: For all men, in the world below and in the world
above must pay for acts committed here. The mind
of those who have died, blown into the immortal air,
immortally has knowledge, though all life is gone.
above must pay for acts committed here. The mind
of those who have died, blown into the immortal air,
immortally has knowledge, though all life is gone.
Post 2.27.2013.6
Menelaus: If you Egyptians take my wife away from me,
I will tell you what will happen then, as she did not.
For your attention, maiden: we are both bound by oath.
First I shall find your brother and we two shall fight.
He will be killed, or I. There is no more to say.
But if he lacks the courage to stand up to me,
and tries to starve and snare two suppliants at the tomb,
I have decided to kill her, then thrust the blade
of this two-edged sword into my own heart, upon
the back of this grave mound before us, where the blood
will splash and drip upon the grave. There we shall lie
two corpses, side by side, upon the marble tomb,
to shame your father, to hurt you, forevermore.
Your brother will not marry her. Nobody else
will marry her. I shall take her away with me,
away to the dead, if I am not to bring her home.
I will tell you what will happen then, as she did not.
For your attention, maiden: we are both bound by oath.
First I shall find your brother and we two shall fight.
He will be killed, or I. There is no more to say.
But if he lacks the courage to stand up to me,
and tries to starve and snare two suppliants at the tomb,
I have decided to kill her, then thrust the blade
of this two-edged sword into my own heart, upon
the back of this grave mound before us, where the blood
will splash and drip upon the grave. There we shall lie
two corpses, side by side, upon the marble tomb,
to shame your father, to hurt you, forevermore.
Your brother will not marry her. Nobody else
will marry her. I shall take her away with me,
away to the dead, if I am not to bring her home.
Post 2.27.2013.4
Menelaus: Telling would only burden me
who am so tired already, and be double pain.
who am so tired already, and be double pain.
Post 2.27.2013.3
Helen: I know
there is no good in learning, but when you love you feel
a fascination in even the sorrows of those you love.
there is no good in learning, but when you love you feel
a fascination in even the sorrows of those you love.
Post 2.27.2013.1
Servant: My daughter, the way of God is complex, he is hard
for us to predict. He moves the pieces and they come
somehow into a kind of order. Some have bad luck
while others, scatheless, meet their evil and go down
in turn. None can hold Fortune still and make it last.
for us to predict. He moves the pieces and they come
somehow into a kind of order. Some have bad luck
while others, scatheless, meet their evil and go down
in turn. None can hold Fortune still and make it last.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Post 2.26.2013.15
Menelaus: You have me, I have you. But the suns of ten-thousand days
were hard to win through to God's gladness here at the end.
My happiness has its tears in it; but there is more
sweetness here than the pain.
were hard to win through to God's gladness here at the end.
My happiness has its tears in it; but there is more
sweetness here than the pain.
Post 2.26.2013.14
Helen: He who sees from the gods a single strain of luck,
all bad, has a sad lot, but can endure it still.
More complex is the sorrow in which I am involved.
I have done nothing wrong and yet my reputation
is bad, and worse than a true evil is it to bear
the burden of faults that are not truly yours.
all bad, has a sad lot, but can endure it still.
More complex is the sorrow in which I am involved.
I have done nothing wrong and yet my reputation
is bad, and worse than a true evil is it to bear
the burden of faults that are not truly yours.
Post 2.26.2013.13
Teucer: What master hold dominion in these lowering halls?
The scope of wall is royal, and the massive pile
bespeaks possession by the lord of Gold and Death.
The scope of wall is royal, and the massive pile
bespeaks possession by the lord of Gold and Death.
Post 2.26.2013.12
Helen: See, next,
how further counsels of Zeus add to my misery.
He loaded war upon the Hellenic land and on
the unhappy Phrygians, thus to drain our mother earth
of the burden and the multitude of human kind.
how further counsels of Zeus add to my misery.
He loaded war upon the Hellenic land and on
the unhappy Phrygians, thus to drain our mother earth
of the burden and the multitude of human kind.
Post 2.26.2013.11
Fourth Maiden: I envy those unhappy from their birth,
For to be bred and seasoned in misfortune
Is to be iron to it,
But there is something in the pang of change
More than the heart can bear,
Unhappiness remembering happiness.
For to be bred and seasoned in misfortune
Is to be iron to it,
But there is something in the pang of change
More than the heart can bear,
Unhappiness remembering happiness.
Post 2.26.2013.10
Iphigenia: If a man die, a house, a name, is lost.
But if a woman die, what does it matter?
But if a woman die, what does it matter?
Post 2.26.2013.8
Orestes: Dreams, lies, lies, dreams -- nothing but emptiness!
Even the Gods, with all Their name for wisdom,
Have only dreams and lies and lose Their course,
Blinded, confused, and ignorant as we.
The wisest men follow their own direction
And listen to no prophet guiding them.
None but the fools believe in oracles,
Forsaking their own judgment. Those who know,
Know that such men can only come to grief.
Even the Gods, with all Their name for wisdom,
Have only dreams and lies and lose Their course,
Blinded, confused, and ignorant as we.
The wisest men follow their own direction
And listen to no prophet guiding them.
None but the fools believe in oracles,
Forsaking their own judgment. Those who know,
Know that such men can only come to grief.
Post 2.26.2013.7
Orestes: It was a wicked war for a wicked woman,
And all the waste that has come from it is wicked.
And all the waste that has come from it is wicked.
Post 2.26.2013.6
Orestes: What good can come from meeting death with tears?
Only a fool, finding that he must meet it,
Wishes to talk about it. If a man
Is sorry for himself, he doubles death:
Is first a coward, then a coward's corpse.
So let a man accept his destiny,
No pity and no tears. The sacrifice
Is customary here. We knew it was.
Only a fool, finding that he must meet it,
Wishes to talk about it. If a man
Is sorry for himself, he doubles death:
Is first a coward, then a coward's corpse.
So let a man accept his destiny,
No pity and no tears. The sacrifice
Is customary here. We knew it was.
Post 2.26.2013.5
Iphigenia: Fate comes and goes, invisible and mute,
And never whispers where Her blow shall fall.
None of us ever sees Her in the dark
Or understands Her cruel mysteries.
And never whispers where Her blow shall fall.
None of us ever sees Her in the dark
Or understands Her cruel mysteries.
Post 2.26.2013.4
Second Maiden: And few have greater riches than the joy
That comes to us in visions,
In dreams which nobody can take away.
That comes to us in visions,
In dreams which nobody can take away.
Post 2.26.2013.3
Iphigenia: You led me in your chariot to take
Achilles for my lord, but here is death
And the taste of blood, not kisses, on my lips!
Achilles for my lord, but here is death
And the taste of blood, not kisses, on my lips!
Post 2.26.2013.2
Iphigenia: Unhappiness, O friends, can harden us
Toward other sorrow harsher than our own.
Toward other sorrow harsher than our own.
Post 2.26.2013.1
Fourth Maiden: O Lady, woe is in me for your woe,
My words are like a song
Of old which mourners in the far-off East
Chant for the dead, reciting only death,
A requiem of hell,
A wail of no returning and no hope,
Using no note of glory,
Only the desolation of the grave.
My words are like a song
Of old which mourners in the far-off East
Chant for the dead, reciting only death,
A requiem of hell,
A wail of no returning and no hope,
Using no note of glory,
Only the desolation of the grave.
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