Electra

Sophocles

Sophocles the plays and fragments, Part 6: The Electra. Jebb, Richard Claverhouse, Sir, translator. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1894.

  1. What must I do?
Orestes
  1. When it is inopportune, do not want to speak too much.
Electra
  1. No, who could exchange due silence for speech, when you have appeared? For now my eyes have seen you, beyond all thought and hope!
Orestes
  1. You saw me when the gods moved me to come. ---
Electra
  1. You have told me of a grace higher still than the first, if a god brought you to our house;
  2. I acknowledge in it the work of the divine.
Orestes
  1. On the one hand I hesitate to curb your gladness, but on the other I fear that you may be overwhelmed by too much joy.
Electra
  1. O you who, after such a long time, saw fit to make your most happy journey and appear to me,
  2. do not, now that you have seen me in all my misery—
Orestes
  1. What should I not do?—
Electra
  1. —Do not rob me of the comfort of your face; do not force me to forego it!
Orestes
  1. I would be angry, indeed, if I saw another attempt it.
Electra
  1. You give your consent?
Orestes
  1. Why would I not?
Electra
  1. My friends, I heard a voice that I could never have hoped to hear; nor could I have restrained my emotion in silence and without a cry, when I heard it.
  2. ah, me! But now I have you. You have appeared with that dear face, which I could never, even in misery, forget.
Orestes
  1. Spare all superfluous words, and inform me neither of our mother’s wickedness,
  2. nor how Aegisthus drains the wealth of our father’s house—what part he pours on the ground and what he squanders at random. For the story would preclude you from the opportunity afforded by the moment. Instead tell me that which will suit our present circumstances: where, either openly or in ambush,
  3. we may put an end to our enemies’ laughter by means of my coming. Make sure that our mother does not discover you by your radiant face, when we two have gone into the house. Rather, make lament, as if for the feigned disaster. For when we succeed, then
  4. there will be opportunity to rejoice and exult in freedom.