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Helen-Part6_Euripides(480-406BC)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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would hear what Menelaus will say to save his life.

MENELAUS



I will not deign to throw myself at thy knees, or wet mine eyes

with tears; for were I to play the coward, I should most foully blur



my Trojan fame. And yet men say it shows a noble soul to let the

tear-drop fall in misfortune. But that will not be the honourable



course that I will choose in preference to bravery, if what I shall

say is honourable. Art thou disposed to save a stranger seeking in



mere justice to regain his wife, why then restore her and save us

likewise; if not, this will not be the first by many a time that I



have suffered, though thou wilt get an evil name. All that I deem

worthy of me and honest, all that will touch thy heart most nearly,



will I utter at the tomb of thy sire with regret for his loss. Old

king beneath this tomb of stone reposing, pay back thy trust! I ask of



thee my wife whom Zeus sent hither unto thee to keep for me. I know

thou canst never restore her to me thyself, for thou art dead; but



this thy daughter will never allow her father once so glorious, whom I

invoke in his grave, to bear a tarnished name; for the decision



rests with her now. Thee, too, great god of death, I call to my

assistance, who hast received full many a corpse, slain by me for



Helen, and art keeping thy wage; either restore those dead now to life

again, or compel the daughter to show herself a worthy equal of her



virtuous sire, and give me back my wife. But if ye will rob me of her,

I will tell you that which she omitted in her speech. Know then,



maiden, I by an oath am bound, first, to meet thy brother sword to

sword, when he or I must die-there is no alternative. But if he refuse



to meet me fairly front to front, and seek by famine to chase away

us suppliants twain at this tomb, I am resolved" target="_blank" title="a.决心的；坚定的">resolved to slay Helen, and



then to plunge this two-edged sword through my own heart, upon the top

of the sepulchre, that our streaming blood may trickle down the



tomb; and our two corpses will be lying side by side upon this

polished slab, a source of deathless grief to thee, and to thy sire



reproach. Never shall thy brother wed Helen, nor shall any other; I

will bear her hence myself, if not to my house, at any rate to



death. And why this stern resolve? Were I to resort to women's ways

and weep, I should be a pitiful creature, not a man of action. Slay



me, if it seems thee good; I will not die ingloriously; but better

yield to what I say, that thou mayst act with justice, and I regain my



wife.

LEADER



On thee, maiden, it rests to judge between these arguments. Decide

in such a way as to please one and all.



THEONOE

My nature and my inclination lean towards piety; myself, too, I



respect, and I will never sully my father's fair name, or gratify my

brother at the cost of bringing myself into open dishonour. For



justice hath her templefirmly founded in my nature, and since I

have this heritage from Nereus I will strive to save Menelaus;



wherefore, seeing it is Hera's will to stand thy friend, I will give

my vote with her. May Cypris be favourable to me! though in me she



hath no part, and I will try to remain a maid alway. As for thy

reproaches against my father at this tomb; lo! I have the same words



to utter; I should be wronging thee, did I not restore thy wife; for

my sire, were he living, would have given her back into thy keeping,



and thee to her. Yea, for there is recompense for these things as well

amongst the dead as amongst all those who breathe the breath of



life. The soul indeed of the dead lives no more, yet hath it a

consciousness that lasts for ever, eternal as the ether into which



it takes the final plunge. Briefly then to end the matter, I will

observe strict silence on all that ye prayed I should, and never



with my counsel will I aid my brother's wanton will. For I am doing

him good service, though he little thinks it, if turn him from his



godless life to holiness. Wherefore devise yourselves some way of

escape; my lips are scaled; I will not cross your path. First with the



goddesses begin, and of the one,-and that one Cypris,-Crave permission

to return unto thy country; and of Hera, that her goodwill may abide



in the same quarter, even her scheme to save thee and thy husband. And

thou, my own dead sire, shalt never, in so far as rests with me,



lose thy holy name to rank with evil-doers.




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