OedipusOh horror of darkness that enfolds me, unspeakable visitant,resistless, sped by a wind too favorable! Oh, me! and once again, Oh, me! How my soul is pierced by the stab of these goads and by the memory of sorrows!ChorusNo wonder that amidst these woesyou mourn and bear a double pain.
OedipusAh, friend, you still are steadfast in your care for me, and still have patience to tend to the blind man! Ah, me!Your presence is not hidden from me—no, blind though I am, nevertheless I know your voice full well.ChorusMan of dread deeds, how could you quench your vision in this way? What divinity urged you on?
OedipusIt was Apollo, friends, Apollo who brought these troublesto pass, these terrible, terrible troubles. But the hand that struck my eyes was none other than my own, wretched that I am!Why should I see, when sight showed me nothing sweet?ChorusThese things were just as you say.OedipusWhat, my friends, can I behold anymore, what can I love, what greeting can touch my ear with joy? Hurry, friends,lead me from the land, lead me from here, the utterly lost,the thrice-accursed, the mortal most hateful to the gods!ChorusWretched alike for your fortune and for your understanding of it, would that I had never known you!
OedipusPerish the man, whoever he was, who freed me in the past years from the cruel shackle on my feet—a thankless deed! Had I died then,I would not have been so sore a grief to my friends and to my own soul.ChorusI too would have had it thus.OedipusIn this way I would not have come to shed my father’s blood, or been known among men as the husband of the woman from whom I was born.