Ion
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.
- Hail, thou broad expanse of bright blue sky! What words can I find to utter my joy aloud? Whence comes to me such unexpected rapture? To what do I owe this bliss?
- This is the last thing that ever would have occurred to me, mother, that I was thy child.
- With fear I tremble still.
- Dost thou doubt my reality?
- Far from me had I banished these hopes. Whence, O whence, lady, didst thou take my babe
- into thy arms? Who carried him to the courts of Loxias?
- ’Tis a miracle! Oh! may we for the rest of our career be happy, as we were hapless heretofore.
- In tears wert thou brought forth, my child,
- and with sorrow to thy mother didst thou leave her arms; but now I breathe again as I press my lips to thy cheek, in full enjoyment of happiness.
- Thy words express our mutual feelings.
- No more am I of son and heir bereft; my house is stablished and my country hath a prince;
- Erechtheus groweth young again; no longer is the house of the earth-born race plunged in gloom, but lifts its eyes unto the radiant sun.
- Mother mine, since my father too is here, let him share the joy I have brought to thee.
- My child, my child, what sayst thou? How is my sin finding me out!
- What meanest thou?
- Thou art of a different, for different stock.
- Alas for me! Am I a bastard, then, bom in thy maiden days?
- Nor nuptial torch nor dance,
- my child, ushered in my wedding and thy birth.
- O mother, mother! whence do I draw my base origin?