章节正文
Bringing us close then snatching us from death?
As of no worth would I esteem that man
Who warms himself with unsubstantial hopes.
Nobly to live, or else nobly to die
Befits proud birth. There is no more to say.
LEADER
The word thou hast uttered, Ajax, none shall call
Bastard, but the true offspring of thy soul.
Yet pause. Let those who love thee overrule
Thy resolution. Put such thoughts aside.
TECMESSA
O my lord Ajax, of all human ills
Greatest is fortune's wayward tyranny.
Of a free father was I born the child,
One rich and great as any Phrygian else.
Now am I a slave; for so the gods, or rather
Thy warrior's hand, would have it. Therefore since
I am thy bedfellow, I wish thee well,
And I entreat thee by domestic Zeus,
And by the embraces that have made me thine,
Doom me not to the cruel taunts of those
Who hate thee, left a bond-slave in strange hands.
For shouldst thou perish and forsake me in death,
That very day assuredly I to
Shall be seized by the Argives, with thy son
To endurehenceforth the portion of a slave.
Then one of my new masters with barbed words
Shall wound me scoffing: "See the concubine
Of Ajax, who was mightiest of the host,
What servile tasks are hers who lived so daintily!"
Thus will men speak, embittering my hard lot,
But words of shame for thee and for thy race.
Nay, piety forbid thee to forsake
Thy father in his drear old age-thy mother
With her sad weight of years, who many a time
Prays to the gods that thou come home alive.
And pity, O king, thy son, who without thee
To foster his youth, must live the orphaned ward
Of loveless guardians. Think how great a sorrow
Dying thou wilt bequeath to him and me.
For I have nothing left to look to more
Save thee. By thy spear was my country ravaged;
And by another stroke did fate lay low
My mother and my sire to dwell with Hades.
Without thee then what fatherland were mine?
What wealth? On thee alone rests all my hope.
O take thought for me too. Do we not owe
Remembrance, where we have met with any joy?
For kindness begets kindness evermore
But he who from whose mind fades the memory
Of benefits, noble is he no more.
LEADER
Ajax, would that thy soul would feel compassion,
As mine does; so wouldst thou approve her words.
AJAX
Verily my approval shall she win,
If only she find heart to do my bidding.
TECMESSA
Dear Ajax, in all things will I obey.
AJAX
Then bring me here my son, for I would see him.
TECMESSA
Nay, but I sent him from me in my fears.
AJAX
During my late affliction, is that thy meaning?
TECMESSA
Lest by ill chance he should meet thee and so perish.
AJAX
Yes, that would have been worthy of my fate.
TECMESSA
That at least I was watchful to avert.
AJAX
I praise thine act and the foresight thou hast shown.
TECMESSA
Since that is so, what shall I do to serve thee?
AJAX
Let me speak to him and behold his face.
TECMESSA
He is close by in the attendants' charge.
AJAX
Why is his coming then so long delayed?
TECMESSA (calling)
My son, thy father calls thee.-Bring him thither
Whichever of you is guiding the child's steps.
AJAX
Is the man coming? Has he heard thy call?
TECMESSA
See, he is here already with the child.
(An attendant enters, leading the child, EURYSACES.)
AJAX
Lift him up, lift him hither. He will not shrink
In terror at sight of yonder new-spilt blood,
If he be rightly mine, his father's son.
Early must he be broken to his sire's
Stern rugged code, and grow like-natured with him.
O son, mayst thou prove happier than thy father,
In all else like him, and thou'lt prove not base.
Yet even now might I envy thee herein,
That of these woes thou hast no sense at all.
For the life that is unconscious is most sweet-
Until we learn what joy and sorrow are.
But that once learnt, then midst thy father's foes
Thou must show what thou art, and of what breed.
Till then be nurtured on soft airs, cherishing
Thy tender life, and be thy mother's joy.
None of the Greeks, I know, will do thee wrong
With cruel outrage, even though I be gone.
So trusty a guardian will I leave thee, Teucer,
Who will not stint his loving care, though now
He is gone far away, in chase of foes.
But you, my warriors, comrades in seafaring,
On you too I impose this task of love;
And fail not to announce my will to Teucer,
That to my home he take the child and show him
To Telamon and my mother Eriboea,
That henceforth he may comfort their old age.
And charge him that no game-steward make my arms
A prize for the Greeks-nor he who ruined me.
But this take thou, my son Eurysaces;
Hold it and wield it by its firm-stitched thong,
This sevenfold spear-proof shield, whence comes thy name.
But else with me my arms shall be interred.
(Speaking now to TECMESSA)
Come, take the child hence quickly, and bolt the doors:
And let there be no weeping and lamenting
Before the hut. Women love tears too well.
Close quickly. It is not for a skilful leech
To drone charms o'er a wound that craves the knife.
LEADER
I am fearful, listening to this eager mood.
The sharp edge of thy tongue, I like it not.
TECMESSA
O my lord Ajax, what art thou purposing?
AJAX
Question me not. To be discreet is best.
TECMESSA
Ah me, heavy is my heart. Now by thy child,
By the gods, I entreat, forsake us not.
AJAX
Vex me no further. Know'st thou not that I
To the gods owe no duty any more?
TECMESSA
Utter no proud words.
AJAX
Speak to those who listen.
TECMESSA
Wilt thou not heed?
AJAX
Too much thou hast spoken already.
TECMESSA
Yes, through my fears, O king.
AJAX
Close the doors quickly.
TECMESSA
For the gods' love, relent.
AJAX
'Tis a foolish hope,
If thou shouldst now propose to school my mood.
(The doors are closed upon AJAX. TECMESSA goes out with EURYSACES.)
CHORUS (singing)
strophe 1
O famed Salamis, thou amidst
Breaking surges abidest ever
Blissful, a joy to the eyes of all men.
But I the while long and wearily tarrying
Through countless months still encamped on the fields of Ida
In misery here have made my couch,
By time broken and worn,
In dread waiting the hour
When I shall enter at last the terrible shadow abode of Hades.
antistrophe 1
Now dismays me a new despair,
This incurablefrenzy (woe, ah
Woe's me!) cast by the gods on Ajax,
Whom thou of old sentest forth from thy shores, a strong
And valiant chief; but now, to his friends a sore grief,
Devouring his lonely heart he sits.
His once glorious deeds
Are now fallen and scorned,
Fallen to death without love from the loveless and pitiless sons
of Atreus.
strophe 2
His mother, 'tis most like, burdened with many days,
And whitened with old age, when she shall hear how frenzy
Has smitten his soul to ruin,
Ailinon! ailinon!
Will break forth her despair, not as the nightingale's
Plaintive, tender lament, no, but in passion's wailing
Shrill-toned cries; and with fierce strokes
Wildly smiting her bosom,
In grief's anguish her hands will rend her grey locks.
antistrophe 2
Yea, better Hell should hide one who is sick in soul,
Though there be none than he sprung from a nobler lineage
Of the war-weary Greeks, yet
Strayed from his inbred mood
Now amidst alien thoughts dwells he a stranger.
Hapless father! alas, bitter the tale that waits thee,
Thy son's grievousaffliction.
No life save his alone
Of Aeacid kings such a curse has ever haunted.
As of no worth would I esteem that man
Who warms himself with unsubstantial hopes.
Nobly to live, or else nobly to die
Befits proud birth. There is no more to say.
LEADER
The word thou hast uttered, Ajax, none shall call
Bastard, but the true offspring of thy soul.
Yet pause. Let those who love thee overrule
Thy resolution. Put such thoughts aside.
TECMESSA
O my lord Ajax, of all human ills
Greatest is fortune's wayward tyranny.
Of a free father was I born the child,
One rich and great as any Phrygian else.
Now am I a slave; for so the gods, or rather
Thy warrior's hand, would have it. Therefore since
I am thy bedfellow, I wish thee well,
And I entreat thee by domestic Zeus,
And by the embraces that have made me thine,
Doom me not to the cruel taunts of those
Who hate thee, left a bond-slave in strange hands.
For shouldst thou perish and forsake me in death,
That very day assuredly I to
Shall be seized by the Argives, with thy son
To endurehenceforth the portion of a slave.
Then one of my new masters with barbed words
Shall wound me scoffing: "See the concubine
Of Ajax, who was mightiest of the host,
What servile tasks are hers who lived so daintily!"
Thus will men speak, embittering my hard lot,
But words of shame for thee and for thy race.
Nay, piety forbid thee to forsake
Thy father in his drear old age-thy mother
With her sad weight of years, who many a time
Prays to the gods that thou come home alive.
And pity, O king, thy son, who without thee
To foster his youth, must live the orphaned ward
Of loveless guardians. Think how great a sorrow
Dying thou wilt bequeath to him and me.
For I have nothing left to look to more
Save thee. By thy spear was my country ravaged;
And by another stroke did fate lay low
My mother and my sire to dwell with Hades.
Without thee then what fatherland were mine?
What wealth? On thee alone rests all my hope.
O take thought for me too. Do we not owe
Remembrance, where we have met with any joy?
For kindness begets kindness evermore
But he who from whose mind fades the memory
Of benefits, noble is he no more.
LEADER
Ajax, would that thy soul would feel compassion,
As mine does; so wouldst thou approve her words.
AJAX
Verily my approval shall she win,
If only she find heart to do my bidding.
TECMESSA
Dear Ajax, in all things will I obey.
AJAX
Then bring me here my son, for I would see him.
TECMESSA
Nay, but I sent him from me in my fears.
AJAX
During my late affliction, is that thy meaning?
TECMESSA
Lest by ill chance he should meet thee and so perish.
AJAX
Yes, that would have been worthy of my fate.
TECMESSA
That at least I was watchful to avert.
AJAX
I praise thine act and the foresight thou hast shown.
TECMESSA
Since that is so, what shall I do to serve thee?
AJAX
Let me speak to him and behold his face.
TECMESSA
He is close by in the attendants' charge.
AJAX
Why is his coming then so long delayed?
TECMESSA (calling)
My son, thy father calls thee.-Bring him thither
Whichever of you is guiding the child's steps.
AJAX
Is the man coming? Has he heard thy call?
TECMESSA
See, he is here already with the child.
(An attendant enters, leading the child, EURYSACES.)
AJAX
Lift him up, lift him hither. He will not shrink
In terror at sight of yonder new-spilt blood,
If he be rightly mine, his father's son.
Early must he be broken to his sire's
Stern rugged code, and grow like-natured with him.
O son, mayst thou prove happier than thy father,
In all else like him, and thou'lt prove not base.
Yet even now might I envy thee herein,
That of these woes thou hast no sense at all.
For the life that is unconscious is most sweet-
Until we learn what joy and sorrow are.
But that once learnt, then midst thy father's foes
Thou must show what thou art, and of what breed.
Till then be nurtured on soft airs, cherishing
Thy tender life, and be thy mother's joy.
None of the Greeks, I know, will do thee wrong
With cruel outrage, even though I be gone.
So trusty a guardian will I leave thee, Teucer,
Who will not stint his loving care, though now
He is gone far away, in chase of foes.
But you, my warriors, comrades in seafaring,
On you too I impose this task of love;
And fail not to announce my will to Teucer,
That to my home he take the child and show him
To Telamon and my mother Eriboea,
That henceforth he may comfort their old age.
And charge him that no game-steward make my arms
A prize for the Greeks-nor he who ruined me.
But this take thou, my son Eurysaces;
Hold it and wield it by its firm-stitched thong,
This sevenfold spear-proof shield, whence comes thy name.
But else with me my arms shall be interred.
(Speaking now to TECMESSA)
Come, take the child hence quickly, and bolt the doors:
And let there be no weeping and lamenting
Before the hut. Women love tears too well.
Close quickly. It is not for a skilful leech
To drone charms o'er a wound that craves the knife.
LEADER
I am fearful, listening to this eager mood.
The sharp edge of thy tongue, I like it not.
TECMESSA
O my lord Ajax, what art thou purposing?
AJAX
Question me not. To be discreet is best.
TECMESSA
Ah me, heavy is my heart. Now by thy child,
By the gods, I entreat, forsake us not.
AJAX
Vex me no further. Know'st thou not that I
To the gods owe no duty any more?
TECMESSA
Utter no proud words.
AJAX
Speak to those who listen.
TECMESSA
Wilt thou not heed?
AJAX
Too much thou hast spoken already.
TECMESSA
Yes, through my fears, O king.
AJAX
Close the doors quickly.
TECMESSA
For the gods' love, relent.
AJAX
'Tis a foolish hope,
If thou shouldst now propose to school my mood.
(The doors are closed upon AJAX. TECMESSA goes out with EURYSACES.)
CHORUS (singing)
strophe 1
O famed Salamis, thou amidst
Breaking surges abidest ever
Blissful, a joy to the eyes of all men.
But I the while long and wearily tarrying
Through countless months still encamped on the fields of Ida
In misery here have made my couch,
By time broken and worn,
In dread waiting the hour
When I shall enter at last the terrible shadow abode of Hades.
antistrophe 1
Now dismays me a new despair,
This incurablefrenzy (woe, ah
Woe's me!) cast by the gods on Ajax,
Whom thou of old sentest forth from thy shores, a strong
And valiant chief; but now, to his friends a sore grief,
Devouring his lonely heart he sits.
His once glorious deeds
Are now fallen and scorned,
Fallen to death without love from the loveless and pitiless sons
of Atreus.
strophe 2
His mother, 'tis most like, burdened with many days,
And whitened with old age, when she shall hear how frenzy
Has smitten his soul to ruin,
Ailinon! ailinon!
Will break forth her despair, not as the nightingale's
Plaintive, tender lament, no, but in passion's wailing
Shrill-toned cries; and with fierce strokes
Wildly smiting her bosom,
In grief's anguish her hands will rend her grey locks.
antistrophe 2
Yea, better Hell should hide one who is sick in soul,
Though there be none than he sprung from a nobler lineage
Of the war-weary Greeks, yet
Strayed from his inbred mood
Now amidst alien thoughts dwells he a stranger.
Hapless father! alas, bitter the tale that waits thee,
Thy son's grievousaffliction.
No life save his alone
Of Aeacid kings such a curse has ever haunted.
- resolution [,rezə´lu:ʃən]
n.决心；坚决；果断 (初中英语单词) - therefore [´ðeəfɔ:] ad.&conj.因此；所以 (初中英语单词)
- domestic [də´mestik] a.家庭的；本国的 (初中英语单词)
- perish [´periʃ] v.灭亡；消灭；(使)死去 (初中英语单词)
- endure [in´djuə] vt.忍耐，忍受；坚持 (初中英语单词)
- henceforth [´hens´fɔ:θ] ad.今后；从今以后 (初中英语单词)
- portion [´pɔ:ʃən] n.嫁妆；命运 vt.分配 (初中英语单词)
- forbid [fə´bid] vt.禁止，不许，阻止 (初中英语单词)
- wealth [welθ] n.财富，财产 (初中英语单词)
- approve [ə´pru:v] v.赞成；同意；批准 (初中英语单词)
- worthy [´wə:ði] a.有价值的；值得的 (初中英语单词)
- attendant [ə´tendənt] n.随员 a.伴随的 (初中英语单词)
- hither [´hiðə] ad.到此处 (初中英语单词)
- terror [´terə] n.恐怖；惊骇 (初中英语单词)
- learnt [lə:nt] learn 的过去式(分词) (初中英语单词)
- impose [im´pəuz] v.课税；强加；利用 (初中英语单词)
- charge [tʃɑ:dʒ] v.收费；冲锋 n.费用 (初中英语单词)
- shield [ʃi:ld] n.盾牌；防御 v.保护 (初中英语单词)
- fearful [´fiəfəl] a.可怕的；担心的 (初中英语单词)
- spoken [´spəukən] speak的过去分词 (初中英语单词)
- misery [´mizəri] n.痛苦；悲惨；穷困 (初中英语单词)
- waiting [´weitiŋ] n.等候；伺候 (初中英语单词)
- lonely [´ləunli] a.孤独的；无人烟的 (初中英语单词)
- glorious [´glɔ:riəs] a.光荣的；辉煌的 (初中英语单词)
- despair [di´speə] vi.&n.绝望 (初中英语单词)
- fierce [fiəs] a.残忍的；强烈的 (初中英语单词)
- haunted [´hɔ:tid] a.常出现鬼的，闹鬼的 (初中英语单词)
- esteem [i´sti:m] n.尊重 vt.认为；感到 (高中英语单词)
- foster [´fɔstə] vt.促进；推动；鼓励 (高中英语单词)
- approval [ə´pru:vəl] n.赞成，批准，认可 (高中英语单词)
- rugged [´rʌgid] a.不平的；粗犷的 (高中英语单词)
- unconscious [ʌn´kɔnʃəs] a.无意识的；不觉察的 (高中英语单词)
- outrage [´aut,reidʒ] n.残暴 vt.虐待；伤害 (高中英语单词)
- guardian [´gɑ:diən] n.监护人；保护人 (高中英语单词)
- loving [´lʌviŋ] a.爱的，有爱情的 (高中英语单词)
- countless [´kauntlis] a.无数的 (高中英语单词)
- lament [lə´ment] v.哀悼 n.哀悼；恸哭 (高中英语单词)
- anguish [´æŋgwiʃ] n.(极度的)痛苦；苦恼 (高中英语单词)
- sprung [sprʌŋ] spring的过去分词 (高中英语单词)
- entreat [in´tri:t] vt.恳求，恳请 (英语四级单词)
- forsake [fə´seik] vt.遗弃，抛弃，摒绝 (英语四级单词)
- assuredly [ə´ʃuəridli] ad.确实地；确信地 (英语四级单词)
- bequeath [bi´kwi:ð] vt.遗赠；传下 (英语四级单词)
- watchful [´wɔtʃfəl] a.注意的；戒备的 (英语四级单词)
- foresight [´fɔ:sait] n.先见，深谋远虑 (英语四级单词)
- rightly [´raitli] ad.正义地；正确地 (英语四级单词)
- trusty [´trʌsti] a.可靠的 n.可信任的 (英语四级单词)
- whence [wens] ad.从何处；从那里 (英语四级单词)
- wearily [´wiərili] ad.疲倦地；厌烦地 (英语四级单词)
- frenzy [´frenzi] n.&vt.(使)狂乱 (英语四级单词)
- valiant [´væliənt] a.勇敢的，英勇的 (英语四级单词)
- amidst [ə´midst] prep.=amid (英语四级单词)
- grievous [´gri:vəs] a.痛苦的；严重的 (英语四级单词)
- wayward [´weiwəd] a.任性的；不易控制的 (英语六级单词)
- affliction [ə´flikʃən] n.痛苦，苦恼；折磨 (英语六级单词)
- weeping [´wi:piŋ] a.&n.哭泣(的) (英语六级单词)
- discreet [di´skri:t] a.谨慎的，考虑周到的 (英语六级单词)
- incurable [in´kjuərəbəl] a.不能治疗的 (英语六级单词)
- pitiless [´pitiləs] a.无怜悯心的；无情的 (英语六级单词)
- smitten [´smitn] smite的过去分词 (英语六级单词)
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章节正文
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