Oedipus Tyrannus
Sophocles
Sophocles the plays and fragments, Part 1: The Oedipus Tyrannus. Jebb, Richard Claverhouse, Sir, translator. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1887.
- The future will come of itself, though I shroud it in silence.
- Since it must come anyway, it is right that you tell it to me.
- I will speak no further: rage, if you wish, with the fiercest wrath your heart knows.
- In my anger I will not spare to speak all my thoughts. Know that you seem to me to have helped in plotting the deed, and to have done it, short of performing the actual murder with your own hands: if you had eyesight, I would have said that you had done even this by yourself.
- In truth? I order you to abide by you own decree, and from this day forth not to speak to these men or to me: you are the accursed defiler of this land.
- So brazen with your blustering taunt?
- Where do you think to escape to?
- I have escaped. There is strength in my truth.
- Who taught you this? Not your skill, at any rate.
- You yourself. For you spurred me on to speak against my will.
- What did you say? Speak again, so I may learn it better.
- Did you not understand before, or are you talking to test me?
- I cannot say I understood fully. Tell me again.
- I say that you are the killer of the man whose slayer you seek.
- Now you will regret that you have said such dire words twice.
- Should I tell you more, that you might get more angry?
- Say as much as you want: it will be said in vain.
- I say that you have been living in unguessed shame with your closest kin, and do not see into what woe you have fallen.
- Do you think that you will always be able to speak like this without smarting for it?
- Yes, if indeed there is any strength in truth.