章节正文
MESSENGER
Dwellers by the house of Cadmus and of Amphion, there is no estate
of mortal life that I would ever praise or blame as settled. Fortune
raises and Fortune humbles the lucky or unlucky from day to day, and
no one can prophesy to men concerning those things which are
established. For
CREON was blest once, as I count bliss; he had saved this land of
Cadmus from its foes; he was clothed with sole dominion in the land;
he reigned, the glorious sire of princely children. And now all hath
been lost. For when a man hath forfeited his pleasures, I count him
not as living,-I hold him but a breathing corpse. Heap up riches in
thy house, if thou wilt; live in kingly state; yet, if there be no
gladness therewith, I would not give the shadow of a vapour for all
the rest, compared with joy.
LEADER OF THE CHORUS
And what is this new grief that thou hast to tell for our princes?
MESSENGER
Death; and the living are guilty for the dead.
LEADER
And who is the slayer? Who the stricken? Speak.
MESSENGER
Haemon hath perished; his blood hath been shed by no stranger.
LEADER
By his father's hand, or by his own?
MESSENGER
By his own, in wrath with his sire for the murder.
LEADER
O prophet, how true, then, hast thou proved thy word!
MESSENGER
These things stand thus; ye must consider of the rest.
LEADER
Lo, I see the hapless Eurydice, Creon's wife, approaching; she
comes from the house by chance, haply,-or because she knows the
tidings of her son.
(Enter EURYDICE from the palace.)
EURYDICE
People of Thebes, I heard your words as I was going forth, to
salute the goddess Pallas with my prayers. Even as I was loosing the
fastenings of the gate, to open it, the message of a household woe
smote on mine ear: I sank back, terror-stricken, into the arms of my
handmaids, and my senses fled. But say again what the tidings were;
I shall hear them as one who is no stranger to sorrow.
MESSENGER
Dear lady, I will witness of what I saw, and will leave no word of
the truth untold. Why, indeed, should I soothe thee with words in
which must presently be found false? Truth is ever best.-I attended
thy lord as his guide to the furthest part of the plain, where the
body of Polyneices, torn by dogs, still lay unpitied. We prayed the
goddess of the roads, and Pluto, in mercy to restrain their wrath;
we washed the dead with holy washing; and with freshly-plucked
boughs we solemnly burned such relics as there were. We raised a
high mound of his native earth; and then we turned away to enter the
maiden's nuptialchamber with rocky couch, the caverned mansion of the
bride of Death. And, from afar off, one of us heard a voice of loud
wailing at that bride's unhallowed bower; and came to tell our
master Creon.
And as the king drew nearer, doubtful sounds of a bitter cry
floated around him; he groaned, and said in accents of anguish,
'Wretched that I am, can my foreboding be true? Am I going on the
wofullest way that ever I went? My son's voice greets me.-Go, my
servants,-haste ye nearer, and when ye have reached the tomb, pass
through the gap, where the stones have been wrenched away, to the
cell's very mouth,-and look. and see if 'tis Haemon's voice that I
know, or if mine ear is cheated by the gods.'
This search, at our despairing master's word, we went to make; and
in the furthest part of the tomb we descried her hanging by the
neck, slung by a thread-wrought halter of fine linen: while he was
embracing her with arms thrown around her waist, bewailing the loss of
his bride who is with the dead, and his father's deeds, and his own
ill-starred love.
But his father, when he saw him, cried aloud with a dread cry
and went in, and called to him with a voice of wailing:-'Unhappy, what
deed hast thou done! What thought hath come to thee? What manner of
mischance hath marred thy reason? Come forth, my child! I pray
thee-I implore!' But the boy glared at him with fierce eyes, spat in
his face, and, without a word of answer, drew his cross-hilted
sword:-as his father rushed forth in flight, he missed his
aim;-then, hapless one, wroth with himself, he straightway leaned with
all his weight against his sword, and drove it, half its length,
into his side; and, while sense lingered, he clasped the maiden to his
faint embrace, and, as he gasped, sent forth on her pale cheek the
swift stream of the oozing blood.
Corpse enfolding corpse he lies; he hath won his nuptial rites,
poor youth, not here, yet in the halls of Death; and he hath witnessed
to mankind that, of all curses which cleave to man, ill counsel is the
sovereign curse.
(EURYDICE retires into the house.)
LEADER
What wouldst thou augur from this? The lady hath turned back,
and is gone, without a word, good or evil.
MESSENGER
I, too, am startled; yet I nourish the hope that, at these sore
tidings of her son, she cannot deign to give her sorrow public vent,
but in the privacy of the house will set her handmaids to mourn the
household grief. For she is not untaught of discretion, that she
should err.
LEADER
I know not; but to me, at least, a strained silence seems to
portend peril, no less than vain abundance of lament.
MESSENGER
Well, I will enter the house, and learn whether indeed she is
not hiding some repressed purpose in the depths of a passionate heart.
Yea, thou sayest well: excess of silence, too, may have a perilous
meaning.
(The MESSENGER goes into the palace. Enter CREON, on the spectators'
left, with attendants, carrying the shrouded body of HAEMON on
bier. The following lines between CREON and the CHORUS are
chanted responsively.)
CHORUS
Lo, yonder the king himself draws near, bearing that which tells
too clear a tale,-the work of no stranger's madness,-if we may say
it,-but of his own misdeeds.
CREON
strophe 1
Woe for the sins of a darkened soul, stubborn sins, fraught with
death! Ah, ye behold us, the sire who hath slain, the son who hath
perished! Woe is me, for the wretchedblindness of my counsels!
Alas, my son, thou hast died in thy youth, by a timeless doom, woe
is me!-thy spirit hath fled,-not by thy folly, but by mine own!
CHORUS
strophe 2
Ah me, how all too late thou seemest to see the right!
CREON Ah me, I have learned the bitter lesson! But then, methinks,
oh then, some god smote me from above with crushing weight, and hurled
me into ways of cruelty, woe is me,-overthrowing and trampling on my
joy! Woe, woe, for the troublous toils of men!
(Enter MESSENGER from the house.)
MESSENGER
Sire, thou hast come, methinks, as one whose hands are not
empty, but who hath store laid up besides; thou bearest yonder
burden with thee-and thou art soon to look upon the woes within thy
house.
CREON
And what worse ill is yet to follow upon ills?
MESSENGER
Thy queen hath died, true mother of yon corpse-ah, hapless lady by
blows newly dealt.
CREON
antistrophe 1
Oh Hades, all-receiving whom no sacrifice can appease! Hast
thou, then, no mercy for me? O thou herald of evil, bitter tidings,
what word dost thou utter? Alas, I was already as dead, and thou
hast smitten me anew! What sayest thou, my son? What is this new
message that thou bringest-woe, woe is me!-Of a wife's doom-of
slaughter headed on slaughter?
CHORUS
Thou canst behold: 'tis no longer hidden within.
(The doors of the palace are opened, and the corpse of EURYDICE is
disclosed.)
CREON
antistrophe 2
Ah me,-yonder I behold a new, a second woe! What destiny, ah what,
can yet await me? I have but now raised my son in my arms,-and
there, again, I see a corpse before me! Alas, alas, unhappy mother!
Alas, my child!
MESSENGER
There, at the altar, self-stabbed with a keen knife, she
suffered her darkening eyes to close, when she had wailed for the
noble fate of Megareus who died before, and then for his fate who lies
there,-and when, with her last breath, she had invoked evil fortunes
upon thee, the slayer of thy sons.
CREON
strophe 3
Woe, woe! I thrill with dread. Is there none to strike me to the
heart with two-edged sword?-O miserable that I am, and steeped in
miserable anguish!
MESSENGER
Yea, both this son's doom, and that other's, were laid to thy
charge by her whose corpse thou seest.
CREON
And what was the manner of the violent deed by which she passed
away?
MESSENGER
Her own hand struck her to the heart, when she had learned her
son's sorely lamented fate.
CREON
strophe 4
Ah me, this guilt can never be fixed on any other of mortal
kind, for my acquittal! I, even I, was thy slayer, wretched that I
am-I own the truth. Lead me away, O my servants, lead me hence with
all speed, whose life is but as death!
CHORUS
Thy counsels are good, if there can be good with ills; briefest is
best, when trouble is in our path.
CREON
antistrophe 3
Oh, let it come, let it appear, that fairest of fates for me, that
brings my last day,-aye, best fate of all! Oh, let it come, that I may
never look upon to-morrow's light.
CHORUS
These things are in the future; present tasks claim our care:
the ordering of the future rests where it should rest.
CREON
All my desires, at least, were summed in that prayer.
CHORUS
Pray thou no more; for mortals have no escape from destined woe.
CREON
antistrophe 4
Lead me away, I pray you; a rash, foolish man; who have slain
thee, ah my son, unwittingly, and thee, too, my wife-unhappy that I
am! I know not which way I should bend my gaze, or where I should seek
Dwellers by the house of Cadmus and of Amphion, there is no estate
of mortal life that I would ever praise or blame as settled. Fortune
raises and Fortune humbles the lucky or unlucky from day to day, and
no one can prophesy to men concerning those things which are
established. For
CREON was blest once, as I count bliss; he had saved this land of
Cadmus from its foes; he was clothed with sole dominion in the land;
he reigned, the glorious sire of princely children. And now all hath
been lost. For when a man hath forfeited his pleasures, I count him
not as living,-I hold him but a breathing corpse. Heap up riches in
thy house, if thou wilt; live in kingly state; yet, if there be no
gladness therewith, I would not give the shadow of a vapour for all
the rest, compared with joy.
LEADER OF THE CHORUS
And what is this new grief that thou hast to tell for our princes?
MESSENGER
Death; and the living are guilty for the dead.
LEADER
And who is the slayer? Who the stricken? Speak.
MESSENGER
Haemon hath perished; his blood hath been shed by no stranger.
LEADER
By his father's hand, or by his own?
MESSENGER
By his own, in wrath with his sire for the murder.
LEADER
O prophet, how true, then, hast thou proved thy word!
MESSENGER
These things stand thus; ye must consider of the rest.
LEADER
Lo, I see the hapless Eurydice, Creon's wife, approaching; she
comes from the house by chance, haply,-or because she knows the
tidings of her son.
(Enter EURYDICE from the palace.)
EURYDICE
People of Thebes, I heard your words as I was going forth, to
salute the goddess Pallas with my prayers. Even as I was loosing the
fastenings of the gate, to open it, the message of a household woe
smote on mine ear: I sank back, terror-stricken, into the arms of my
handmaids, and my senses fled. But say again what the tidings were;
I shall hear them as one who is no stranger to sorrow.
MESSENGER
Dear lady, I will witness of what I saw, and will leave no word of
the truth untold. Why, indeed, should I soothe thee with words in
which must presently be found false? Truth is ever best.-I attended
thy lord as his guide to the furthest part of the plain, where the
body of Polyneices, torn by dogs, still lay unpitied. We prayed the
goddess of the roads, and Pluto, in mercy to restrain their wrath;
we washed the dead with holy washing; and with freshly-plucked
boughs we solemnly burned such relics as there were. We raised a
high mound of his native earth; and then we turned away to enter the
maiden's nuptialchamber with rocky couch, the caverned mansion of the
bride of Death. And, from afar off, one of us heard a voice of loud
wailing at that bride's unhallowed bower; and came to tell our
master Creon.
And as the king drew nearer, doubtful sounds of a bitter cry
floated around him; he groaned, and said in accents of anguish,
'Wretched that I am, can my foreboding be true? Am I going on the
wofullest way that ever I went? My son's voice greets me.-Go, my
servants,-haste ye nearer, and when ye have reached the tomb, pass
through the gap, where the stones have been wrenched away, to the
cell's very mouth,-and look. and see if 'tis Haemon's voice that I
know, or if mine ear is cheated by the gods.'
This search, at our despairing master's word, we went to make; and
in the furthest part of the tomb we descried her hanging by the
neck, slung by a thread-wrought halter of fine linen: while he was
embracing her with arms thrown around her waist, bewailing the loss of
his bride who is with the dead, and his father's deeds, and his own
ill-starred love.
But his father, when he saw him, cried aloud with a dread cry
and went in, and called to him with a voice of wailing:-'Unhappy, what
deed hast thou done! What thought hath come to thee? What manner of
mischance hath marred thy reason? Come forth, my child! I pray
thee-I implore!' But the boy glared at him with fierce eyes, spat in
his face, and, without a word of answer, drew his cross-hilted
sword:-as his father rushed forth in flight, he missed his
aim;-then, hapless one, wroth with himself, he straightway leaned with
all his weight against his sword, and drove it, half its length,
into his side; and, while sense lingered, he clasped the maiden to his
faint embrace, and, as he gasped, sent forth on her pale cheek the
swift stream of the oozing blood.
Corpse enfolding corpse he lies; he hath won his nuptial rites,
poor youth, not here, yet in the halls of Death; and he hath witnessed
to mankind that, of all curses which cleave to man, ill counsel is the
sovereign curse.
(EURYDICE retires into the house.)
LEADER
What wouldst thou augur from this? The lady hath turned back,
and is gone, without a word, good or evil.
MESSENGER
I, too, am startled; yet I nourish the hope that, at these sore
tidings of her son, she cannot deign to give her sorrow public vent,
but in the privacy of the house will set her handmaids to mourn the
household grief. For she is not untaught of discretion, that she
should err.
LEADER
I know not; but to me, at least, a strained silence seems to
portend peril, no less than vain abundance of lament.
MESSENGER
Well, I will enter the house, and learn whether indeed she is
not hiding some repressed purpose in the depths of a passionate heart.
Yea, thou sayest well: excess of silence, too, may have a perilous
meaning.
(The MESSENGER goes into the palace. Enter CREON, on the spectators'
left, with attendants, carrying the shrouded body of HAEMON on
bier. The following lines between CREON and the CHORUS are
chanted responsively.)
CHORUS
Lo, yonder the king himself draws near, bearing that which tells
too clear a tale,-the work of no stranger's madness,-if we may say
it,-but of his own misdeeds.
CREON
strophe 1
Woe for the sins of a darkened soul, stubborn sins, fraught with
death! Ah, ye behold us, the sire who hath slain, the son who hath
perished! Woe is me, for the wretchedblindness of my counsels!
Alas, my son, thou hast died in thy youth, by a timeless doom, woe
is me!-thy spirit hath fled,-not by thy folly, but by mine own!
CHORUS
strophe 2
Ah me, how all too late thou seemest to see the right!
CREON Ah me, I have learned the bitter lesson! But then, methinks,
oh then, some god smote me from above with crushing weight, and hurled
me into ways of cruelty, woe is me,-overthrowing and trampling on my
joy! Woe, woe, for the troublous toils of men!
(Enter MESSENGER from the house.)
MESSENGER
Sire, thou hast come, methinks, as one whose hands are not
empty, but who hath store laid up besides; thou bearest yonder
burden with thee-and thou art soon to look upon the woes within thy
house.
CREON
And what worse ill is yet to follow upon ills?
MESSENGER
Thy queen hath died, true mother of yon corpse-ah, hapless lady by
blows newly dealt.
CREON
antistrophe 1
Oh Hades, all-receiving whom no sacrifice can appease! Hast
thou, then, no mercy for me? O thou herald of evil, bitter tidings,
what word dost thou utter? Alas, I was already as dead, and thou
hast smitten me anew! What sayest thou, my son? What is this new
message that thou bringest-woe, woe is me!-Of a wife's doom-of
slaughter headed on slaughter?
CHORUS
Thou canst behold: 'tis no longer hidden within.
(The doors of the palace are opened, and the corpse of EURYDICE is
disclosed.)
CREON
antistrophe 2
Ah me,-yonder I behold a new, a second woe! What destiny, ah what,
can yet await me? I have but now raised my son in my arms,-and
there, again, I see a corpse before me! Alas, alas, unhappy mother!
Alas, my child!
MESSENGER
There, at the altar, self-stabbed with a keen knife, she
suffered her darkening eyes to close, when she had wailed for the
noble fate of Megareus who died before, and then for his fate who lies
there,-and when, with her last breath, she had invoked evil fortunes
upon thee, the slayer of thy sons.
CREON
strophe 3
Woe, woe! I thrill with dread. Is there none to strike me to the
heart with two-edged sword?-O miserable that I am, and steeped in
miserable anguish!
MESSENGER
Yea, both this son's doom, and that other's, were laid to thy
charge by her whose corpse thou seest.
CREON
And what was the manner of the violent deed by which she passed
away?
MESSENGER
Her own hand struck her to the heart, when she had learned her
son's sorely lamented fate.
CREON
strophe 4
Ah me, this guilt can never be fixed on any other of mortal
kind, for my acquittal! I, even I, was thy slayer, wretched that I
am-I own the truth. Lead me away, O my servants, lead me hence with
all speed, whose life is but as death!
CHORUS
Thy counsels are good, if there can be good with ills; briefest is
best, when trouble is in our path.
CREON
antistrophe 3
Oh, let it come, let it appear, that fairest of fates for me, that
brings my last day,-aye, best fate of all! Oh, let it come, that I may
never look upon to-morrow's light.
CHORUS
These things are in the future; present tasks claim our care:
the ordering of the future rests where it should rest.
CREON
All my desires, at least, were summed in that prayer.
CHORUS
Pray thou no more; for mortals have no escape from destined woe.
CREON
antistrophe 4
Lead me away, I pray you; a rash, foolish man; who have slain
thee, ah my son, unwittingly, and thee, too, my wife-unhappy that I
am! I know not which way I should bend my gaze, or where I should seek
- glorious [´glɔ:riəs]
a.光荣的；辉煌的 (初中英语单词) - riches [´ritʃiz] n.房地产；丰富 (初中英语单词)
- therewith [ðɛə´wið] ad.于是，随即 (初中英语单词)
- guilty [´gilti] a.有罪的；心虚的 (初中英语单词)
- prophet [´prɔfit] n.预言家；先知；提倡者 (初中英语单词)
- goddess [´gɔdis] n.女神 (初中英语单词)
- witness [´witnis] n.见证人 vt.目击 (初中英语单词)
- presently [´prezəntli] ad.不久；目前 (初中英语单词)
- fierce [fiəs] a.残忍的；强烈的 (初中英语单词)
- flight [flait] n.逃走；飞行；班机 (初中英语单词)
- maiden [´meidn] n.少女 a.未婚的 (初中英语单词)
- embrace [im´breis] vt.&n.拥抱；采纳；信奉 (初中英语单词)
- stream [stri:m] n.河 vi.流出；飘扬 (初中英语单词)
- counsel [´kaunsəl] n.商议；劝告；律师 (初中英语单词)
- abundance [ə´bʌndəns] n.丰富，充裕 (初中英语单词)
- excess [´ekses] n.超过 a.过分的 (初中英语单词)
- messenger [´mesindʒə] n.使者；送信人 (初中英语单词)
- chorus [´kɔ:rəs] n.合唱；齐声 v.合唱 (初中英语单词)
- wretched [´retʃid] a.可怜的；倒霉的 (初中英语单词)
- hidden [´hid(ə)n] hide 的过去分词 (初中英语单词)
- unhappy [ʌn´hæpi] a.不幸的；不快乐的 (初中英语单词)
- breath [breθ] n.呼吸；气息 (初中英语单词)
- thrill [θril] v.震惊；激动；刺激 (初中英语单词)
- miserable [´mizərəbəl] a.悲惨的；可怜的 (初中英语单词)
- violent [´vaiələnt] a.强暴的；猛烈的 (初中英语单词)
- mortal [´mɔ:tl] a.致命的 n.凡人 (高中英语单词)
- concerning [kən´sə:niŋ] prep.关于 (高中英语单词)
- dominion [də´miniən] n.主权；统治权；领地 (高中英语单词)
- stricken [´strikən] strike的过去分词 (高中英语单词)
- terror-stricken [´terə,strikən] a.(受了)惊吓的 (高中英语单词)
- tidings [´taidiŋz] n.消息，音信 (高中英语单词)
- soothe [su:ð] vt.安慰；镇定；减轻 (高中英语单词)
- restrain [ri´strein] vt.抑制；管束；限制 (高中英语单词)
- solemnly [´sɔləmli] ad.严肃地，庄严地 (高中英语单词)
- chamber [´tʃeimbə] n.房间；议院；会议室 (高中英语单词)
- mansion [´mænʃən] n.大厦；宅第；官邸 (高中英语单词)
- doubtful [´dautful] a.怀疑的，可疑的 (高中英语单词)
- hanging [´hæŋiŋ] n.绞刑 a.悬挂着的 (高中英语单词)
- straightway [´streitwei] ad.立刻 (高中英语单词)
- nourish [´nʌriʃ] vt.养育；施肥于 (高中英语单词)
- passionate [´pæʃənit] a.易动情的；易怒的 (高中英语单词)
- bearing [´beəriŋ] n.举止；忍耐；关系 (高中英语单词)
- stubborn [´stʌbən] a.顽固的；坚持的 (高中英语单词)
- learned [´lə:nid] a.有学问的，博学的 (高中英语单词)
- cruelty [´kru:əlti] n.残忍；残酷行为 (高中英语单词)
- methinks [mi´θiŋks] vi.据我看来 (高中英语单词)
- herald [´herəld] n.先驱；预兆 vt.预示 (高中英语单词)
- destiny [´destini] n.命运 (高中英语单词)
- unlucky [ʌn´lʌki] a.倒霉的，不幸的 (英语四级单词)
- prophesy [´prɔfisai] v.预言；预示 (英语四级单词)
- princely [´prinsli] a.王候般的；高贵的 (英语四级单词)
- corpse [kɔ:ps] n.尸体 (英语四级单词)
- kingly [´kiŋli] a.国王的 ad.国王似地 (英语四级单词)
- cleave [kli:v] v.劈(开) vi.粘住；依恋 (英语四级单词)
- privacy [´praivəsi, -pri] n.隐退；独处；秘密 (英语四级单词)
- discretion [di´skreʃən] n.谨慎；判断(力) (英语四级单词)
- blindness [´blaindnis] n.失明；愚味，文盲 (英语四级单词)
- hapless [´hæpləs] a.不幸的；倒楣的 (英语六级单词)
- untold [,ʌn´təuld] a.没有说到的；无数的 (英语六级单词)
- nuptial [´nʌpʃəl] a.婚姻的 n.婚礼 (英语六级单词)
- despairing [di´speəriŋ] a.感到绝望的 (英语六级单词)
- halter [´hɔ:ltə] n.缰绳，绞索 (英语六级单词)
- fraught [frɔ:t] a.充满...的 (英语六级单词)
- smitten [´smitn] smite的过去分词 (英语六级单词)
- sorely [´sɔ:li] ad.痛苦地；剧烈地 (英语六级单词)
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