Philoktetes Part 11

NEOPTOLEMOS

What madness is now upon you?

Why do you look at the summit above us?

PHILOKTETES

Let me go!

NEOPTOLEMOS

Where?

PHILOKTETES

Let me go.

NEOPTOLEMOS

I cannot allow it.

PHILOKTETES

Touch me, and you kill me.

NEOPTOLEMOS

I am letting go. You are saner now.

PHILOKTETES

O Earth, take my body from me now.

The illness no longer allows me to stand.

NEOPTOLEMOS

Soon, I think, sleep will overcome him.

He nods his head.

Sweat drenches his body, and a black bitter flood of pus and blood has broken and runs from his foot.

Let us leave him to sleep, friends.

Let us leave him quietly.

CHORUS

Sleep, stranger to pain and suffering, descend upon us kindly now.

Cover his eyes with your radiance, come down, Healer, come down.

Boy, look now at where you stand, at where you are going, at what I hold for the future.

Do you see him?

He sleeps. Why are we waiting?

The right moment decides everything and wins many sudden victories.

NEOPTOLEMOS

Yes, he hears nothing. But we have needlessly hunted, captured nothing if we take the bow, and sail without him.

The crown of victory belongs to the one whom Zeus commanded that we bring back.

A boast that cannot be carried out is a lie. That boast is a shameful disgrace.

CHORUS

Zeus will attend to such things, my boy.

Answer me now; whisper softly.

The sleep of a sick man, aware of all things, sees all. It is a sleep that is no sleep.

Think as far ahead as you can of how you might secretly do as I say.

You know of whom I am thinking now.

If your decision is the same as his, then anyone with eyes can see trouble ahead.

A fair wind is rising.

The man is blind and helpless now, stretched out in the darkness--- he is master not of hand, not of foot, not of anything.

He is one lying down in Hades's chambers.

Look to see if the time is right for what you intend: the best work is that which causes no fear.

NEOPTOLEMOS

Quiet, now! Have you lost your senses?

The man's eyes are opening. He raises his head.

PHILOKTETES

Blessed is the light that follows sleep, blessed is a friend's protection.

These things are beyond my wildest hopes, that you would pity me and care for my sorrows, that you would remain by me and endure my woes.

The Atreids, the n.o.ble generals, would not do this.

They would have no tolerance for my distress.

Your nature is truly n.o.ble, for it comes from n.o.ble parents.

You took this burden easily, a burden heavy with howls and foul smells. Now I can put aside this illness.

I can rest. Raise me up in your arms, my boy, put me on my feet, and let me gather my strength, so that we can go to your s.h.i.+p and sail off immediately.

NEOPTOLEMOS

I am glad to see you with open eyes, unpained, alive.

Your symptoms seemed those of a dead man, when taken with your sufferings.

Arise now. If you wish, these men will lift you.

They will do all they can for you now that you and I are s.h.i.+pmates.

PHILOKTETES

Thank you. But lift me up yourself, as you once suggested. Do not trouble the men.

Let the stench not disturb them so early on--- my being aboard will be bother enough.