Alcestis
Euripides
Euripides. The Plays of Euripides, Translated into English Prose from the Text of Paley. Vol. I. Coleridge, Edward P., translator. London: George Bell and Sons, 1906.
- Yet shall no man ever see Alcmena’s son trembling at his foemen’s prowess.
- See where Admetus, lord of this land, comes in person from the palace forth.
- Hail! son of Zeus, from Perseus sprung.
- Joy to thee also, Admetus, king of Thessaly.
- Would there were! yet thy kindly heart I know full well.
- Why dost thou appear with head shorn thus in mourning?
- To-day I am to bury one who is dead.
- Heaven avert calamity from thy children!
- The children I have begotten are alive within my house.
- Thy father maybe is gone; well, he was ripe to go.
- No, Heracles, he lives; my mother too.
- It cannot be thy wife is dead, thy Alcestis?
- I can a twofold tale tell about her.
- Dost mean that she is dead, or living still?
- She lives, yet lives no more; that is my grief.
- I am no wiser yet; thy words are riddles to me.
- Knowest thou not the doom she must undergo?
- I know she did submit to die in thy stead.
- How then is she still alive, if so she promised?
- Ah! weep not thy wife before the day, put that off till then.
- The doomed is dead; the dead no more exists.