Ajax

Sophocles

Sophocles the plays and fragments, Part 7: The Ajax. Jebb, Richard Claverhouse, Sir, translator. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1891.

  1. Ah, what shall I do? What loved one is there to lift you in his arms? Where is Teucer? How timely would be his arrival, if he would but come to compose the corpse of his brother here! Ah, unlucky Ajax, from so great a height you are fallen so low!
  2. Even among your enemies you are worthy of mourning!
Chorus
  1. You were bound, poor man, with that unbending heart you were bound, it seems, to fulfill a harsh destiny of limitless toils! So wild to my ears
  2. were the words of hatred which in your fierce mood you moaned against the Atreidae with such deadly passion. True it is that that moment was a potent source of sorrows,
  3. when the arms were made the prize for a contest in the skills of warfare!
Tecmessa
  1. Ah! Ah!
Chorus
  1. True anguish, I know, pierces your heart.
Tecmessa
  1. Ah! Ah, me!