Ajax
Sophocles
Sophocles the plays and fragments, Part 7: The Ajax. Jebb, Richard Claverhouse, Sir, translator. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1891.
- You could make a thousand stealthy crimes look pretty.
- That sentiment leads to pain for someone I know.
- The pain will be no greater, I think, than that which we will inflict.
- I will tell you once and for all—there is to be no burial for him.
- And hear my reply—he shall be buried immediately.
- Once I saw a bold-tongued man who had urged sailors to set sail during wintertime. Yet in him you could have found no voice
- when the worst of the storm was upon him. No, hidden beneath his cloak he allowed the crew to trample on him at will. And so it is with you and your raging speech—perhaps a great storm, even if its blast comes from a small cloud, will extinguish your shouting.
- Yes, and I have seen a man stuffed with foolishness who exulted in his neighbor’s misfortunes. It turned out that a man like me and of similar temperament stared at him and said, Man, do not wrong the dead; for, if you do, rest assured that you will come to harm. So he warned the misguided man before him. Take note—I see him now, and I think that he is no one but you. Have I spoken in riddles?