Helen

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.

  1. This is the meaning of that; her words have turned out to be true. O longed-for day, that has given you to my arms!
Helen
  1. O Menelaos, dearest of men, the time was long, but delight is just now ours.
  2. With joy I have found my husband, friends, I have embraced my dear one, after long days of blazing light.
Menelaos
  1. And I have found you; but I have many questions about t; now I do not know what to begin with first.
Helen
  1. I am so happy, the hair rises on my head and my tears run down. I fling my arms around your neck,
  2. dear husband, to have my delight.
Menelaos
  1. O dearest sight! I have no fault to find: I have my wife, the daughter of Zeus and Leda; your brothers on their snow-white steeds
  2. blessed you, blessed you at an earlier time, while torches blazed, but the god who took you from my home is driving us on to another fortune, better than this. An evil that was good brought you together with me, your husband
  3. after a long time, but may I still benefit by my good luck.
Chorus
  1. May you benefit indeed, and I join in the same prayer; for when there are two, it is not possible for one to be unhappy and the other not.
Helen
  1. My dear friends, I no longer sigh or grieve over what is past.
  2. I have my husband, for whom I have been waiting to come from Troy for many years.
Menelaos
  1. You have me, and I have you; although it was hard to live through so many days, I now understand the actions of the goddess. My joy is tearful; it has more
  2. delight than sorrow.
Helen
  1. What can I say? What mortal could ever have hoped for this? I hold you to my heart, little as I ever thought to.