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.
- dear husband, to have my delight.
- 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
- 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
- after a long time, but may I still benefit by my good luck.
- 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.
- My dear friends, I no longer sigh or grieve over what is past.
- I have my husband, for whom I have been waiting to come from Troy for many years.
- 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
- delight than sorrow.
- What can I say? What mortal could ever have hoped for this? I hold you to my heart, little as I ever thought to.
- And I hold you, whom we thought to have gone to Ida’s city and the unhappy towers of Ilion.
- By the gods, how were you taken from my home?
- Ah! ah! You are setting out on a bitter beginning. Ah! ah! You are asking about a bitter tale.
- Speak; all gifts from the gods should be heard.
- I detest the story I am now to introduce.
- Tell it anyway. It is sweet to hear of troubles.
- Not to the bed of the young barbarian, on the wings of oars, on the wings of desire for lawless marriage—
- What god or fate tore you from your country?
- Ah, my husband! The son of Zeus, of Zeus, brought me to the Nile.
- Amazing! Who sent you there? O dreadful story!