Hecuba
Euripides
Euripides. The Plays of Euripides, Translated into English Prose from the Text of Paley. Vol. II. Coleridge, Edward P., translator. London: George Bell and Sons, 1891.
- No one shall dispute the crown with her.
- What now, unhappy one with your cry of misery? Your evil tidings never seem to rest.
- It is to Hecuba I bring my bitter news; no easy task is it for mortal lips to speak smooth words in sorrow.
- Look, she is coming even now from the shelter of the tent, appearing just in time to hear you speak. Hecuba comes out of the tent.
- O mistress, most hapless beyond all words of mine to tell; you are ruined, you no longer exist, though you are alive; of children, husband, city bereft; hopelessly undone!
- This is no news but insult; I have heard it all before. But why have you come, bringing here to me the corpse of Polyxena, on whose burial Achaea’s army was reported to be busily engaged?
- She knows nothing, but mourns
- Polyxena, not grasping her new sorrows.
- Ah! woe is me! you are surely not bringing here frenzied Cassandra, the prophetic maid?
- You speak of the living; but the dead you do not weep is here. Uncovering the corpse Mark well the body now laid bare;