Medea
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.
- Indeed, they know that hateful heart of thine.
- Thou art as hateful. I am aweary of thy bitter tongue.
- And I likewise of thine. But parting is easy.
- Say how; what am I to do? for I am fain as thou to go.
- Give up to me those dead, to bury and lament
- No, never! I will bury them myself, bearing them to Hera’s sacred field, who watches o’er the Cape,
- that none of their foes may insult them by pulling down their tombs; and in this land of Sisyphus I will ordain hereafter a solemn feast and mystic rites to atone for this impious murder. Myself will now to the land of Erechtheus,
- to dwell with Aegeus, Pandion’s son. But thou, as well thou mayest, shalt die a caitiff’s death, thy head[*](Legend told how Jason was slain by a beam falling on him as he lay asleep under the shadow of his ship Argo.) crushed ’neath a shattered relic of Argo, when thou hast seen the bitter ending of my marriage.
- The curse of our sons’ avenging spirit and of Justice,
- that calls for blood, be on thee!
- What god or power divine hears thee, breaker of oaths and every law of hospitality?
- Fie upon thee! cursed witch! child-murderess!
- To thy house! go, bury thy wife.
- I go, bereft of both my sons.
- Thy grief is yet to come; wait till old age is with thee too.
- O my dear, dear children!
- Dear to their mother, not to thee.
- And yet thou didst slay them?
- Yea, to vex thy heart.
- One last fond kiss, ah me!