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East Dane Designer Men's Fashion. Shopbop Designer Fashion Brands. Withoutabox Submit to Film Festivals. This is the man whom Oedipus long shunned, In dread to prove his murderer; and now He dies in nature's course, not by his hand. Thy father Polybus hath passed away. If I must first make plain beyond a doubt My message, know that Polybus is dead.
Richter, beurteilen, urteilen, richten, Preisrichter. Neuigkeiten, Nachricht, Meldung, Neuigkeit, Bericht. One touch will send an old man to his rest. Yes, having measured the full span of years. Did they not point at me as doomed to slay My father? But, as they stand, the oracles are dead-Dust, ashes, nothing, dead as Polybus. Best live a careless life from hand to mouth. This wedlock with thy mother fear not thou.
How oft it chances that in dreams a man German absent: Verloren, verdammt, Sich sehnen nach, Sehnen, Sehnend, verurteilt. Spannweite, Spanne, Messspanne, Spannfeld. He who least regards Such brainsick phantasies lives most at ease. Who may this woman be whom thus you fear? And what of her can cause you any fear? A mystery, or may a stranger hear it? Loxias once foretold That I should mate with mine own mother, and shed With my own hands the blood of my own sire. Hence Corinth was for many a year to me A home distant; and I trove abroad, But missed the sweetest sight, my parents' face.
Was this the fear that exiled thee from home? Bergwerk, meiner, Grube, Mine, meines, mein, Zeche, meine, der meine, verminen, die meine. Why, since I came to give thee pleasure, King, Have I not rid thee of this second fear? Well, I confess what chiefly made me come Was hope to profit by thy coming home. My son, 'tis plain, thou know'st not what thou doest. For heaven's sake tell me all. If this is why thou dreadest to return. Lest through thy parents thou shouldst be accursed?
Dost thou not know thy fears are baseless all? Wort, Vokabel, Datenwort, Formulieren. Since Polybus was naught to thee in blood. As much thy sire as I am, and no more. Since I begat thee not, no more did he. Know that he took thee from my hands, a gift. A childless man till then, he warmed to thee. I found thee in Cithaeron's wooded glens. My business was to tend the mountain flocks. Sklave, Sklavin, Knecht, Dienstsklave, Leibeigene.
Bis, Kasse, Geldkasten, Geldschublade, bis zu. True, but thy savior in that hour, my son. Those ankle joints are evidence enow. I loosed the pin that riveted thy feet. Whence thou deriv'st the name that still is thine. I adjure thee, tell me who Say, was it father, mother? The man from whom I had thee may know more. Not I; another shepherd gave thee me. Would'st thou know again the man? He passed indeed for one of Laius' house.
His fellow-countrymen should best know that. The hour hath come to clear this business up. Methinks he means none other than the hind Whom thou anon wert fain to see; but that Our queen Jocasta best of all could tell. Is the same of whom the stranger speaks? Enough the anguish I endure.
Pein, Qual, Schreckhaftigkeit, Angst. Verfasser unbekannt, sogleich, so gleich, bald, alsbald. With that last word I leave thee, henceforth silent evermore. Why, Oedipus, why stung with passionate grief Hath the queen thus departed? Much I fear From this dead calm will burst a storm of woes. It may be she with all a woman's pride Thinks scorn of my base parentage. But I German ancestry: She is my mother and the changing moons My brethren, and with them I wax and wane.
Thus sprung why should I fear to trace my birth? Nothing can make me other than I am. Dance and song shall hymn thy praises, lover of our royal race. Phoebus, may my words find grace! Of did Loxias beget thee, for he haunts the upland wold; Or Cyllene's lord, or Bacchus, dweller on the hilltops cold? Did some Heliconian Oread give him thee, a new-born joy? Nymphs with whom he love to toy? OEDIPUS Elders, if I, who never yet before Have met the man, may make a guess, methinks I see the herdsman who we long have sought; His time-worn aspect matches with the years Of yonder aged messenger; besides I seem to recognize the men who bring him As servants of my own.
But you, perchance, Having in past days known or seen the herd, May better by sure knowledge my surmise. Hymne, Hymnus, Loblied, Lobgesang, Preislied. I recognize him; one of Laius' house; A simple hind, but true as any man. Wast thou once of Laius' house? But I will revive His blunted memories. Sure he can recall What time together both we drove our flocks, He two, I one, on the Cithaeron range, For three long summers; I his mate from spring Till rose Arcturus; then in winter time I led mine home, he his to Laius' folds.
Did these things happen as I say, or no? Well, thou mast then remember giving me A child to rear as my own foster-son? Friend, he that stands before thee was that child. Hold thy wanton tongue! Fuhr, fuhrst, fuhren, fuhrt, trieben an, triebt an, triebt, triebst an, triebst, trieben, trieb an. Rose, rosa, Rosenbusch, die Rose. Wunder, Verwunderung, staunen, sich wundern, sich fragen, erstaunen, verwundern, Aufsehen. What have I done?
Ritzel, den Mund verbieten, knebeln, erpressen. I stand upon the perilous edge of speech. I thought He'd take it to the country whence he came; But he preserved it for the worst of woes. For if thou art in sooth what this man saith, God pity thee! O light, may I behold thee nevermore! I stand a wretch, in birth, in wedlock cursed, A parricide, incestuously, triply cursed! For he who most doth know Of bliss, hath but the show; A moment, and the visions pale and fade.
Thy fall, O Oedipus, thy piteous fall Warns me none born of women blest to call. Schatten, Schemen, schattieren, Hirngespinst. By him the vulture maid Was quelled, her witchery laid; He rose our savior and the land's strong tower. We hailed thee king and from that day adored Of mighty Thebes the universal lord. Who now more desolate, Whose tale more sad than thine, whose lot more dire? O Oedipus, discrowned head, Thy cradle was thy marriage bed; One harborage sufficed for son and sire. How could the soil thy father eared so long Endure to bear in silence such a wrong?
O child of Laius' ill-starred race Would I had ne'er beheld thy face; I raise for thee a dirge as o'er the dead. Yet, sooth to say, through thee I drew new breath, And now through thee I feel a second death. Most grave and reverend senators of Thebes, What Deeds ye soon must hear, what sights behold How will ye mourn, if, true-born patriots, Ye reverence still the race of Labdacus!
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Not Ister nor all Phasis' flood, I ween, Could wash away the blood-stains from this house, German beheld: Sophocles 61 The ills it shrouds or soon will bring to light, Ills wrought of malice, not unwittingly. The worst to bear are self-inflicted wounds. Grievous enough for all our tears and groans Our past calamities; what canst thou add? My tale is quickly told and quickly heard. Our sovereign lady queen Jocasta's dead. By her own hand. And all the horror of it, Not having seen, yet cannot comprehend.
Nathless, as far as my poor memory serves, I will relate the unhappy lady's woe. When in her frenzy she had passed inside The vestibule, she hurried straight to win The bridal-chamber, clutching at her hair With both her hands, and, once within the room, She shut the doors behind her with a crash. Then she bewailed the marriage bed whereon Poor wretch, she had conceived a double brood, Husband by husband, children by her child. What happened after that I cannot tell, Nor how the end befell, for with a shriek German begot: For stalking to and fro "A sword!
Then we beheld the woman hanging there, A running noose entwined about her neck. But when he saw her, with a maddened roar He loosed the cord; and when her wretched corpse Lay stretched on earth, what followed--O 'twas dread! He tore the golden brooches that upheld Her queenly robes, upraised them high and smote Full on his eye-balls, uttering words like these: Such evils, issuing from the double source, Have whelmed them both, confounding man and wife.
Sophocles 63 Till now the storied fortune of this house Was fortunate indeed; but from this day Woe, lamentation, ruin, death, disgrace, All ills that can be named, all, all are theirs. But hath he still no respite from his pain? He cries, "Unbar the doors and let all Thebes Behold the slayer of his sire, his mother's--" That shameful word my lips may not repeat. He vows to fly self-banished from the land, Nor stay to bring upon his house the curse Himself had uttered; but he has no strength Nor one to guide him, and his torture's more Than man can suffer, as yourselves will see.
For lo, the palace portals are unbarred, And soon ye shall behold a sight so sad That he who must abhorred would pity it. None can tell Who did cast on thee his spell, prowling all thy life around, Leaping with a demon bound. Though to gaze on thee I yearn, Much to question, much to learn, Horror-struck away I turn. Ah whither am I borne! How like a ghost forlorn My voice flits from me on the air! On, on the demon goads. The end, ah where? An end too dread to tell, too dark to see.
The horror of darkness, like a shroud, Wraps me and bears me on through mist and cloud. Ah me, ah me!
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What spasms athwart me shoot, What pangs of agonizing memory? No marvel if in such a plight thou feel'st The double weight of past and present woes. I know thee near, and though bereft of eyes, Thy voice I recognize. O doer of dread deeds, how couldst thou mar Thy vision thus? What demon goaded thee? Nebel, Dunst, Dampf, Qualm, Schleier. Sophocles 65 But the right hand that dealt the blow Was mine, none other. How, How, could I longer see when sight Brought no delight? Haste, friends, no fond delay, Take the twice cursed away Far from all ken, The man abhorred of gods, accursed of men.
O thy despair well suits thy desperate case. Would I had never looked upon thy face! He meant me well, yet had he left me there, He had saved my friends and me a world of care. I too had wished it so. I cannot say that thou hast counseled well, For thou wert better dead than living blind. Thou canst never shake My firm belief. A truce to argument. For, had I sight, I know not with what eyes I could have met my father in the shades, Or my poor mother, since against the twain I sinned, a sin no gallows could atone. Aye, but, ye say, the sight of children joys A parent's eyes.
What, born as mine were born? No, such a sight could never bring me joy; Nor this fair city with its battlements, Its temples and the statues of its gods, Sights from which I, now wretchedst of all, Once ranked the foremost Theban in all Thebes, By my own sentence am cut off, condemned By my own proclamation 'gainst the wretch, The miscreant by heaven itself declared Unclean--and of the race of Laius.
Thus branded as a felon by myself, How had I dared to look you in the face? Nay, had I known a way to choke the springs Of hearing, I had never shrunk to make A dungeon of this miserable frame, Cut off from sight and hearing; for 'tis bliss to bide in regions sorrow cannot reach. Why didst thou harbor me, Cithaeron, why German afflicted: Then I never Had shown to men the secret of my birth. O Polybus, O Corinth, O my home, Home of my ancestors so wast thou called How fair a nursling then I seemed, how foul The canker that lay festering in the bud!
Now is the blight revealed of root and fruit. Ye triple high-roads, and thou hidden glen, Coppice, and pass where meet the three-branched ways, Ye drank my blood, the life-blood these hands spilt, My father's; do ye call to mind perchance Those deeds of mine ye witnessed and the work I wrought thereafter when I came to Thebes?
O fatal wedlock, thou didst give me birth, And, having borne me, sowed again my seed, Mingling the blood of fathers, brothers, children, Brides, wives and mothers, an incestuous brood, All horrors that are wrought beneath the sun, Horrors so foul to name them were unmeet. O, I adjure you, hide me anywhere Far from this land, or slay me straight, or cast me Down to the depths of ocean out of sight. Come hither, deign to touch an abject wretch; Draw near and fear not; I myself must bear The load of guilt that none but I can share.
Lo, here is Creon, the one man to grant Thy prayer by action or advice, for he Is left the State's sole guardian in thy stead. Ozean, Meer, Weltmeer, See. Wurzel, die Wurzel, Stamm. What cause has he to trust me? In the past I have bee proved his rancorous enemy. Not in derision, Oedipus, I come Nor to upbraid thee with thy past misdeeds. Leave not thus nakedly for all to gaze at A horror neither earth nor rain from heaven Nor light will suffer.
Lead him straight within, For it is seemly that a kinsman's woes Be heard by kin and seen by kin alone. I ask it not on my behalf, but thine. And what the favor thou wouldst crave of me? This had I done already, but I deemed It first behooved me to consult the god. Yea, so he spake, but in our present plight 'Twere better to consult the god anew. Yea, for thyself wouldst credit now his word. But for myself, O never let my Thebes, The city of my sires, be doomed to bear The burden of my presence while I live.
No, let me be a dweller on the hills, On yonder mount Cithaeron, famed as mine, My tomb predestined for me by my sire And mother, while they lived, that I may die Slain as they sought to slay me, when alive. This much I know full surely, nor disease Shall end my days, nor any common chance; For I had ne'er been snatched from death, unless I was predestined to some awful doom.
I reck not how Fate deals with me But my unhappy children--for my sons Be not concerned, O Creon, they are men, And for themselves, where'er they be, can fend. Hear me, O prince, my noble-hearted prince! Could I but blindly touch them with my hands I'd think they still were mine, as when I saw. Has Creon pitied me And sent me my two darlings? O children mine, Where are ye? Let me clasp you with these hands, A brother's hands, a father's; hands that made Lack-luster sockets of his once bright eyes; Hands of a man who blindly, recklessly, Became your sire by her from whom he sprang.
Though I cannot behold you, I must weep In thinking of the evil days to come, The slights and wrongs that men will put upon you. Where'er ye go to feast or festival, No merrymaking will it prove for you, But oft abashed in tears ye will return. And when ye come to marriageable years, German abashed: Unschuldig, harmlos, arglos, schuldlos, gutartig.
Who then will wed you? None, I ween, but ye Must pine, poor maids, in single barrenness. O Prince, Menoeceus' son, to thee, I turn, With the it rests to father them, for we Their natural parents, both of us, are lost.
O leave them not to wander poor, unwed, Thy kin, nor let them share my low estate. O pity them so young, and but for thee All destitute. Thy hand upon it, Prince. To you, my children I had much to say, Were ye but ripe to hear. Pray ye may find some home and live content, And may your lot prove happier than your sire's. Thou hast had enough of weeping; pass within. Weep not, everything must have its day.
What thy terms for going, say. Ask this of the gods, not me. Then they soon will grant thy plea. Come, but let thy children go. Crave not mastery in all, For the mastery that raised thee was thy bane and wrought thy fall. Look ye, countrymen and Thebans, this is Oedipus the great, He who knew the Sphinx's riddle and was mightiest in our state. Who of all our townsmen gazed not on his fame with envious eyes?
Now, in what a sea of troubles sunk and overwhelmed he lies! Therefore wait to see life's ending ere thou count one mortal blest; Wait till free from pain and sorrow he has gained his final rest. He sits to rest on a rock just within a sacred grove of the Furies and is bidden depart by a passing native.
But Oedipus, instructed by an oracle that he had reached his final resting-place, refuses to stir, and the stranger consents to go and consult the Elders of Colonus the Chorus of the Play. Conducted to the spot they pity at first the blind beggar and his daughter, but on learning his name they are horror-striken and order him to quit the land.
He appeals to the world-famed hospitality of Athens and hints at the blessings that his coming will confer on the State. They agree to await the decision of King Theseus. From Theseus Oedipus craves protection in life and burial in Attic soil; the benefits that will accrue shall be told later. Theseus departs having promised to aid and befriend him.
No sooner has he gone than Creon enters with an armed guard who seize Antigone and carry her off Ismene, the other sister, they have already captured and he is about to lay hands on Oedipus, when Theseus, who has heard the tumult, hurries up and, upbraiding Creon for his lawless act, threatens to detain him till he has shown where the captives are and restored them.
In the next scene Theseus returns bringing with him the rescued maidens. He informs Oedipus that a stranger who has taken sanctuary at the altar of Poseidon wishes to see him. It is Polyneices who has come to crave his father's forgiveness and blessing, knowing by an oracle that victory will fall to the side that Oedipus espouses. But Oedipus spurns the hypocrite, and invokes a dire curse on both his unnatural sons. A sudden clap of thunder is heard, and as peal follows peal, Oedipus is aware that his hour is come and bids Antigone summon Theseus.
Self-guided he leads the way to the spot where death should overtake him, attended by Theseus and his daughters. Halfway he bids his daughters farewell, and what followed none but Theseus knew. He was not so the Messenger reports for the gods took him. In front of the grove of the Eumenides. Who will provide today with scanted dole This wanderer? My daughter, if thou seest a resting place On common ground or by some sacred grove, Stay me and set me down.
Let us discover Where we have come, for strangers must inquire Of denizens, and do as they are bid. Long-suffering father, Oedipus, the towers That fence the city still are faint and far; But where we stand is surely holy ground; German common: Sophocles 77 A wilderness of laurel, olive, vine; Within a choir or songster nightingales Are warbling.
On this native seat of rock Rest; for an old man thou hast traveled far. If time can teach, I need not to be told. Athens I recognize, but not the spot. Shall I go on and ask about the place? Sure there are habitations; but no need To leave thee; yonder is a man hard by. Say rather, here already.
Ask him straight The needful questions, for the man is here. Chor, Singakademie, Gesangsvereinigung, Singchor. The spot thou treadest on is holy ground. Losung, Wahlspruch, Devise, Parole. Hard by, the Titan, he who bears the torch, Prometheus, has his worship; but the spot Thou treadest, the Brass-footed Threshold named, Is Athens' bastion, and the neighboring lands Claim as their chief and patron yonder knight Colonus, and in common bear his name. Such, stranger, is the spot, to fame unknown, But dear to us its native worshipers. Lieb, liebe, teuer, lieber, wert, Himmelsbewohner, liebe Person, liebes, hold, Himmlische, Gottgesandte.
Aufforderung, Gebet, einen Antrag monarch: To tell him aught or urge his coming? They will soon decide Whether thou art to rest or go thy way. Yes, he has gone; now we are all alone, And thou may'st speak, dear father, without fear. OEDIPUS Stern-visaged queens, since coming to this land First in your sanctuary I bent the knee, Frown not on me or Phoebus, who, when erst He told me all my miseries to come, Spake of this respite after many years, Some haven in a far-off land, a rest Vouchsafed at last by dread divinities.
Sophocles 81 A blessing to the land wherein thou dwell'st, But to the land that cast thee forth, a curse. And now I recognize as yours the sign That led my wanderings to this your grove; Else had I never lighted on you first, A wineless man on your seat of native rock. O goddesses, fulfill Apollo's word, Grant me some consummation of my life, If haply I appear not all too vile, A thrall to sorrow worse than any slave.
Hear, gentle daughters of primeval Night, Hear, namesake of great Pallas; Athens, first Of cities, pity this dishonored shade, The ghost of him who once was Oedipus. A prudent man Will ever shape his course by what he learns. Every nook and corner scan! He the all-presumptuous man, Whither vanished? Auftrag, Botengang, Besorgung, Kommission, Bestellung. But now some godless man, 'Tis rumored, here abides; The precincts through I scan, Yet wot not where he hides, The wretch profane!
I search and search in vain. O dread to see and dread to hear! Who can he be--Zeus save us! Bann, Verbot, Bannfluch, verbieten, verbannen, Boykott, ausstossen, Fluch. Gebrechlich, zerbrechlich, nicht solide, unsolide. Evil, methinks, and long Thy pilgrimage on earth. Yet add not curse to curse and wrong to wrong.
I warn thee, trespass not Within this hallowed spot, Lest thou shouldst find the silent grassy glade Where offerings are laid, Bowls of spring water mingled with sweet mead. Thou must not stay, Come, come away, Tired wanderer, dost thou heed? We are far off, but sure our voice can reach.
If aught thou wouldst beseech, Speak where 'tis right; till then refrain from speech. We must obey and do as here they do. Vertrauen, Zuversicht, Fiduz, Zutrauen. Lead maiden, thou canst guide him where we will. In a strange land strange thou art; To her will incline thy heart; Honor whatso'er the State Honors, all she frowns on hate. Sophocles 85 Counsel freely may exchange Nor with fate and fortune fight. Go no further than that rocky floor. Yes, advance no more. Move sideways towards the ledge, And sit thee crouching on the scarped edge.
Thy steps to my steps, lean thine aged frame on mine. Wanderer, now thou art at rest, Tell me of thy birth and home, From what far country art thou come, Led on thy weary way, declare! O forbear-- German advance: What is it, old man, that thou wouldst conceal? Speak, for thou standest on the slippery verge. Come, Sir, why dally thus! Abneigung, Magnetischer Widerstand, Widerstreben. Stille, Schweigen, Ruhe, Stillschweigen, das Schweigen auferlegen. Forth from our borders speed ye both! Heaven's justice never smites Him who ill with ill requites.
But if guile with guile contend, Bane, not blessing, is the end. Arise, begone and take thee hence straightway, Lest on our land a heavier curse thou lay. O with a gracious nod Grant us the nigh despaired-of boon we crave? Hear us, O hear, But all that ye hold dear, Wife, children, homestead, hearth and God! Where will you find one, search ye ne'er so well. Who 'scapes perdition if a god impel! Surely we pity thee and him alike Daughter of Oedipus, for your distress; But as we reverence the decrees of Heaven We cannot say aught other than we said.
Are they not vanity? For, look you, now Athens is held of States the most devout, Athens alone gives hospitality And shelters the vexed stranger, so men say. Have I found so? I whom ye dislodged First from my seat of rock and now would drive Forth from your land, dreading my name alone; For me you surely dread not, nor my deeds, German alone: Yet am I then A villain born because in self-defense, Striken, I struck the striker back again? E'en had I known, no villainy 'twould prove: But all unwitting whither I went, I went-To ruin; my destroyers knew it well, Wherefore, I pray you, sirs, in Heaven's name, Even as ye bade me quit my seat, defend me.
O pay not a lip service to the gods And wrong them of their dues. Bethink ye well, The eye of Heaven beholds the just of men, And the unjust, nor ever in this world Has one sole godless sinner found escape. Stand then on Heaven's side and never blot Athens' fair scutcheon by abetting wrong. I came to you a suppliant, and you pledged Your honor; O preserve me to the end, O let not this marred visage do me wrong! A holy and god-fearing man is here Whose coming purports comfort for your folk. And when your chief arrives, whoe'er he be, Then shall ye have my story and know all.
Meanwhile I pray you do me no despite. The plea thou urgest, needs must give us pause, Set forth in weighty argument, but we Must leave the issue with the ruling powers. Ursache, Grund, Anlass, verursachen, bewirken, veranlassen, Sache, antun, hervorrufen, machen, Veranlassung. Trotz, Ungeachtet, Verachtung, Zum Trotz. In his ancestral seat; a messenger, The same who sent us here, is gone for him. Aye, that he will, when once he learns thy name.
The way is long, And many travelers pass to speed the news. Be sure he'll hear and hasten, never fear; So wide and far thy name is noised abroad, That, were he ne'er so spent and loth to move, He would bestir him when he hears of thee. Who serves his neighbor serves himself. What can I say or think?
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- A Fathers Gift: Stories From Our Past, Vol.2.
- Invisible Year.
I see a woman Riding upon a colt of Aetna's breed; She wears for headgear a Thessalian hat German ancestral: Who can it be? She or a stranger? Do I wake or dream? Now her bright'ning glance Greets me with recognition, yes, 'tis she, Herself, Ismene! That I behold thy daughter and my sister, And thou wilt know her straightway by her voice. The thoughts and actions all Are framed and modeled on Egyptian ways.
For there the men sit at the loom indoors While the wives slave abroad for daily bread. So you, my children--those whom I behooved To bear the burden, stay at home like girls, German abroad: The one Since first she grew from girlish feebleness To womanhood has been the old man's guide And shared my weary wandering, roaming oft Hungry and footsore through wild forest ways, In drenching rains and under scorching suns, Careless herself of home and ease, if so Her sire might have her tender ministry. And thou, my child, whilom thou wentest forth, Eluding the Cadmeians' vigilance, To bring thy father all the oracles Concerning Oedipus, and didst make thyself My faithful lieger, when they banished me.
And now what mission summons thee from home, What news, Ismene, hast thou for thy father? This much I know, thou com'st not empty-handed, Without a warning of some new alarm. ISMENE The toil and trouble, father, that I bore To find thy lodging-place and how thou faredst, I spare thee; surely 'twere a double pain To suffer, first in act and then in telling; 'Tis the misfortune of thine ill-starred sons I come to tell thee. At the first they willed To leave the throne to Creon, minded well Thus to remove the inveterate curse of old, A canker that infected all thy race.
But now some god and an infatuate soul Have stirred betwixt them a mad rivalry To grasp at sovereignty and kingly power. Today the hot-branded youth, the younger born, German alarm: The banished brother so all Thebes reports Fled to the vale of Argos, and by help Of new alliance there and friends in arms, Swears he will stablish Argos straight as lord Of the Cadmeian land, or, if he fail, Exalt the victor to the stars of heaven. This is no empty tale, but deadly truth, My father; and how long thy agony, Ere the gods pity thee, I cannot tell.
What hath been uttered, child? Erbau, moralisch Auftrieb, hochheben, Hebung, erheben, erbauen, emporheben, der Risikozuschlag, Auftrieb, Aufschwungs, Aufschwung. OEDIPUS Then may the gods ne'er quench their fatal feud, And mine be the arbitrament of the fight, For which they now are arming, spear to spear; That neither he who holds the scepter now May keep this throne, nor he who fled the realm Return again. They never raised a hand, When I their sire was thrust from hearth and home, German alike: Konjunktion, Bindewort, Verbindung, Kuppelwort.
Say you 'twas done at my desire, a grace Which the state, yielding to my wish, allowed? Not so; for, mark you, on that very day When in the tempest of my soul I craved Death, even death by stoning, none appeared To further that wild longing, but anon, When time had numbed my anguish and I felt My wrath had all outrun those errors past, Then, then it was the city went about By force to oust me, respited for years; And then my sons, who should as sons have helped, Did nothing: These two maids Their sisters, girls, gave all their sex could give, Food and safe harborage and filial care; While their two brethren sacrificed their sire For lust of power and sceptred sovereignty.
Come Creon then, come all the mightiest In Thebes to seek me; for if ye my friends, Championed by those dread Powers indigenous, Espouse my cause; then for the State ye gain A great deliverer, for my foemen bane. Our pity, Oedipus, thou needs must move, German banned: First make atonement to the deities, Whose grove by trespass thou didst first profane. Make a libation first of water fetched With undefiled hands from living spring. With wool from fleece of yearling freshly shorn. Pour thy libation, turning to the dawn.
Drehend, kehrend, wendend, drechselnd, Drehen, umwendend, umdrehend, Schwenke, Schwenkungen, Gangbar, Drehung. Yea, in three streams; and be the last bowl drained To the last drop. With water and with honey; add no wine. Then lay upon it thrice nine olive sprays With both thy hands, and offer up this prayer. That, as we call them Gracious, they would deign To grant the suppliant their saving grace. So pray thyself or whoso pray for thee, In whispered accents, not with lifted voice; Then go and look back.
Do as I bid, And I shall then be bold to stand thy friend; Else, stranger, I should have my fears for thee. We listened, and attend thy bidding, father. Wein, Weinrebe, Rebstock, der Wein. So to your work with speed, but leave me not Untended; for this frame is all too week To move without the help of guiding hand. Beyond this grove; if thou hast need of aught, The guardian of the close will lend his aid. In a parent's cause Toil, if there be toil, is of no account. Thy tale of cruel suffering For which no cure was found, The fate that held thee bound. Heilung, heilen, kurieren, genesen, Heilmittel, Kur, behandeln, wiederherstellen, gesunden.
The tale is bruited far and near, And echoes still from ear to ear. The truth, I fain would hear. Grant my request, I granted all to thee. Didst thou in sooth then share A bed incestuous with her that bare-- German bane: Bemerkung, Zorn, Wut, Verachtung, yield: Their father's very sister's too. And sinned-- German boundless: What canst thou plead? Behold our sovereign, Theseus, Aegeus' son, Comes at thy summons to perform his part. All that I lately gathered on the way Made my conjecture doubly sure; and now Thy garb and that marred visage prove to me That thou art he.
So pitying thine estate, Most ill-starred Oedipus, I fain would know What is the suit ye urge on me and Athens, Thou and the helpless maiden at thy side. Declare it; dire indeed must be the tale Whereat I should recoil. I too was reared, Like thee, in exile, and in foreign lands Wrestled with many perils, no man more.
Wherefore no alien in adversity Shall seek in vain my succor, nor shalt thou; I know myself a mortal, and my share In what the morrow brings no more than thine. Sophocles So without prologue I may utter now My brief petition, and the tale is told. Earth's might decays, the might of men decays, Honor grows cold, dishonor flourishes, There is no constancy 'twixt friend and friend, Or city and city; be it soon or late, Sweet turns to bitter, hate once more to love.
If now 'tis sunshine betwixt Thebes and thee And not a cloud, Time in his endless course Gives birth to endless days and nights, wherein The merest nothing shall suffice to cut With serried spears your bonds of amity. Then shall my slumbering and buried corpse In its cold grave drink their warm life-blood up, If Zeus be Zeus and Phoebus still speak true. Enough if thou wilt keep thy plighted troth, Then shall thou ne'er complain that Oedipus Proved an unprofitable and thankless guest, Except the gods themselves shall play me false.
The man, my lord, has from the very first Declared his power to offer to our land These and like benefits. First, he can claim the hospitality To which by mutual contract we stand pledged: Next, coming here, a suppliant to the gods, He pays full tribute to the State and me; His favors therefore never will I spurn, But grant him the full rights of citizen; And, if it suits the stranger here to bide, I place him in your charge, or if he please Rather to come with me--choose, Oedipus, Which of the two thou wilt. Thy choice is mine. I shall not thwart thy wish.
Versprechen, versprichst, versprich, versprecht, verspreche, zusagen, Zusage, sagst zu, sagt zu, sagen zu, sage zu. Such threats Vented in anger oft, are blusterers, An idle breath, forgot when sense returns. And for thy foemen, though their words were brave, Boasting to bring thee back, they are like to find The seas between us wide and hard to sail. Such my firm purpose, but in any case German anger: Zweck, Absicht, Ziel, Bestimmung. My name, Though I be distant, warrants thee from harm.
And never the sleepless fountains cease That feed Cephisus' stream, But they swell earth's bosom with quick increase, And their wave hath a crystal gleam. And the Muses' quire will never disdain To visit this heaven-favored plain, Nor the Cyprian queen of the golden rein. Kranz, Girlande, Guirlande, Gewinde. Sophocles Terror to foemen's spear, A tree in Asian soil unnamed, By Pelops' Dorian isle unclaimed, Self-nurtured year by year; 'Tis the grey-leaved olive that feeds our boys; Nor youth nor withering age destroys The plant that the Olive Planter tends And the Grey-eyed Goddess herself defends.
Oh land extolled above all lands, 'tis now For thee to make these glorious titles good. Creon approaches with his company. Burghers, my noble friends, ye take alarm At my approach I read it in your eyes , Fear nothing and refrain from angry words. I come with no ill purpose; I am old, And know the city whither I am come, Without a peer amongst the powers of Greece.
It was by reason of my years that I Was chosen to persuade your guest and bring Him back to Thebes; not the delegate Of one man, but commissioned by the State, Since of all Thebans I have most bewailed, Being his kinsman, his most grievous woes. O listen to me, luckless Oedipus, Come home!
The whole Cadmeian people claim With right to have thee back, I most of all, For most of all else were I vile indeed I mourn for thy misfortunes, seeing thee An aged outcast, wandering on and on, A beggar with one handmaid for thy stay. Seems it not cruel this reproach I cast On thee and on myself and all the race? Aye, but an open shame cannot be hid.
Hide it, O hide it, Oedipus, thou canst. O, by our fathers' gods, consent I pray; German amongst: Beute, Raub, Opfer, Fang. Sophocles Come back to Thebes, come to thy father's home, Bid Athens, as is meet, a fond farewell; Thebes thy old foster-mother claims thee first. In old days when by self-wrought woes distraught, I yearned for exile as a glad release, Thy will refused the favor then I craved.
But when my frenzied grief had spent its force, And I was fain to taste the sweets of home, Then thou wouldst thrust me from my country, then These ties of kindred were by thee ignored; And now again when thou behold'st this State And all its kindly people welcome me, Thou seek'st to part us, wrapping in soft words Hard thoughts. And yet what pleasure canst thou find In forcing friendship on unwilling foes? Suppose a man refused to grant some boon When you importuned him, and afterwards When you had got your heart's desire, consented, Granting a grace from which all grace had fled, Would not such favor seem an empty boon?
Yet such the boon thou profferest now to me, Fair in appearance, but when tested false. Yea, I will proved thee false, that these may hear; Thou art come to take me, not to take me home, But plant me on thy borders, that thy State May so escape annoyance from this land. That thou shalt never gain, but this instead-- German annoyance: Have not I more skill Than thou to draw the horoscope of Thebes?
Are not my teachers surer guides than thine-Great Phoebus and the sire of Phoebus, Zeus? Thou art a messenger suborned, thy tongue Is sharper than a sword's edge, yet thy speech Will bring thee more defeats than victories. Howbeit, I know I waste my words--begone, And leave me here; whate'er may be my lot, He lives not ill who lives withal content. Which loses in this parley, I o'erthrown By thee, or thou who overthrow'st thyself? Unhappy man, will years ne'er make thee wise? Must thou live on to cast a slur on age? Not for a man indeed with wits like thine. I bid thee in these burghers' name, And prowl no longer round me to blockade My destined harbor.
Though untaken thou shalt smart. One of thy daughters is already seized, The other I will carry off anon. This is but prelude to thy woes. And soon shall have the other. Chase this ungodly villain from your land. Einspruch, protestieren, Protest, anfechten, beanstanden, Widerspruch, Gegenrede, Einspruch erheben. Hence, stranger, hence avaunt! Thou doest wrong In this, and wrong in all that thou hast done.
Ah, woe is me! What would'st thou, stranger?
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I meddle not with him, but her who is mine. Sir, thou dost wrong. I take but what is mine. What means this, sirrah? Not till thou forbear. Quick, unhand the maid! Command your minions; I am not your slave. Desist, I bid thee. To the rescue, one and all! Rally, neighbors to my call! See, the foe is at the gate! Rally to defend the State. Ah, woe is me, they drag me hence, O friends. Haled along by force. They will not let me, father.
Geheime Gelüste (German Edition)
So those two crutches shall no longer serve thee For further roaming. Since it pleaseth thee To triumph o'er thy country and thy friends Who mandate, though a prince, I here discharge, Enjoy thy triumph; soon or late thou'lt find Thou art an enemy to thyself, both now And in time past, when in despite of friends Thou gav'st the rein to passion, still thy bane.
Hold there, sir stranger! Hands off, have a care. Restore the maidens, else thou goest not. Then Thebes will take a dearer surety soon; I will lay hands on more than these two maids. What canst thou further? Triumph, Triumphieren, Sieg, siegen. Carry off this man. And deeds forthwith shall make them good. Unless perchance our sovereign intervene. Would'st lay an hand on me? Silence, I bid thee! Wretch, now my eyes are gone thou hast torn away The helpless maiden who was eyes to me; For these to thee and all thy cursed race May the great Sun, whose eye is everywhere, Grant length of days and old age like to mine.
Listen, O men of Athens, mark ye this? Nothing shall curb my will; though I be old And single-handed, I will have this man. Thou art a bold man, stranger, if thou think'st To execute thy purpose. Then shall I deem this State no more a State. With a just quarrel weakness conquers might. Aye words, but not yet deeds, Zeus knoweth! Zeus may haply know, not thou.
Insolence that thou must bear. Haste ye princes, sound the alarm! Men of Athens, arm ye, arm! Quickly to the rescue come Ere the robbers get them home. On what errand have I hurried hither without stop or stay. He it is Hath robbed me of my all, my daughters twain. Command my liegemen leave the sacrifice And hurry, foot and horse, with rein unchecked, To where the paths that packmen use diverge, Lest the two maidens slip away, and I Become a mockery to this my guest, As one despoiled by force. Quick, as I bid. As for this stranger, had I let my rage, Justly provoked, have play, he had not 'scaped Scathless and uncorrected at my hands.
But now the laws to which himself appealed, These and none others shall adjudicate. Thou shalt not quit this land, till thou hast fetched German altars: Thou hast offended both against myself And thine own race and country. Having come Unto a State that champions right and asks For every action warranty of law, Thou hast set aside the custom of the land, And like some freebooter art carrying off What plunder pleases thee, as if forsooth Thou thoughtest this a city without men, Or manned by slaves, and me a thing of naught.
Yet not from Thebes this villainy was learnt; Thebes is not wont to breed unrighteous sons, Nor would she praise thee, if she learnt that thou Wert robbing me--aye and the gods to boot, Haling by force their suppliants, poor maids. Were I on Theban soil, to prosecute The justest claim imaginable, I Would never wrest by violence my own Without sanction of your State or King; I should behave as fits an outlander Living amongst a foreign folk, but thou Shamest a city that deserves it not, Even thine own, and plentitude of years Have made of thee an old man and a fool.
Therefore again I charge thee as before, See that the maidens are restored at once, Unless thou would'st continue here by force And not by choice a sojourner; so much I tell thee home and what I say, I mean. Thy case is perilous; though by birth and race Thou should'st be just, thou plainly doest wrong. Nor would they harbor, so I stood assured, A godless parricide, a reprobate Convicted of incestuous marriage ties. For on her native hill of Ares here I knew your far-famed Areopagus Sits Justice, and permits not vagrant folk To stay within your borders. In that faith I hunted down my quarry; and e'en then i had refrained but for the curses dire Wherewith he banned my kinsfolk and myself: Such wrong, methought, had warrant for my act.
Anger has no old age but only death; The dead alone can feel no touch of spite. So thou must work thy will; my cause is just But weak without allies; yet will I try, Old as I am, to answer deeds with deeds. Murder and incest, deeds of horror, all Thou blurtest forth against me, all I have borne, No willing sinner; so it pleased the gods Wrath haply with my sinful race of old, Since thou could'st find no sin in me myself For which in retribution I was doomed To trespass thus against myself and mine.
And if When born to misery, as born I was, I met my sire, not knowing whom I met or what I did, and slew him, how canst thou With justice blame the all-unconscious hand? And for my mother, wretch, art not ashamed, Seeing she was thy sister, to extort From me the story of her marriage, such A marriage as I straightway will proclaim. For I will speak; thy lewd and impious speech Has broken all the bonds of reticence. She was, ah woe is me! But this at least I know Wittingly thou aspersest her and me; But I unwitting wed, unwilling speak.
Nay neither in this marriage or this deed Which thou art ever casting in my teeth-A murdered sire--shall I be held to blame.