Oedipus Trilogy Part 22

What say I? Can I wish that thou should'st touch One fallen like me to utter wretchedness, Corrupt and tainted with a thousand ills?

Oh no, I would not let thee if thou would'st.

They only who have known calamity Can share it. Let me greet thee where thou art, And still befriend me as thou hast till now.

THESEUS I marvel not if thou hast dallied long In converse with thy children and preferred Their speech to mine; I feel no jealousy, I would be famous more by deeds than words.

Of this, old friend, thou hast had proof; my oath I have fulfilled and brought thee back the maids Alive and nothing harmed for all those threats.

And how the fight was won, 'twere waste of words To boast--thy daughters here will tell thee all.

But of a matter that has lately chanced On my way hitherward, I fain would have Thy counsel--slight 'twould seem, yet worthy thought.

A wise man heeds all matters great or small.

OEDIPUS What is it, son of Aegeus? Let me hear.

Of what thou askest I myself know naught.

THESEUS 'Tis said a man, no countryman of thine, But of thy kin, hath taken sanctuary Beside the altar of Poseidon, where I was at sacrifice when called away.

OEDIPUS What is his country? what the suitor's prayer?

THESEUS I know but one thing; he implores, I am told, A word with thee--he will not trouble thee.

OEDIPUS What seeks he? If a suppliant, something grave.

THESEUS He only waits, they say, to speak with thee, And then unharmed to go upon his way.

OEDIPUS I marvel who is this pet.i.tioner.

THESEUS Think if there be not any of thy kin At Argos who might claim this boon of thee.

OEDIPUS Dear friend, forbear, I pray.

THESEUS What ails thee now?

OEDIPUS Ask it not of me.

THESEUS Ask not what? explain.

OEDIPUS Thy words have told me who the suppliant is.

THESEUS Who can he be that I should frown on him?

OEDIPUS My son, O king, my hateful son, whose words Of all men's most would jar upon my ears.

THESEUS Thou sure mightest listen. If his suit offend, No need to grant it. Why so loth to hear him?

OEDIPUS That voice, O king, grates on a father's ears; I have come to loathe it. Force me not to yield.

THESEUS But he hath found asylum. O beware, And fail not in due reverence to the G.o.d.

ANTIGONE O heed me, father, though I am young in years.

Let the prince have his will and pay withal What in his eyes is service to the G.o.d; For our sake also let our brother come.

If what he urges tend not to thy good He cannot surely wrest perforce thy will.

To hear him then, what harm? By open words A scheme of villainy is soon bewrayed.

Thou art his father, therefore canst not pay In kind a son's most impious outrages.

O listen to him; other men like thee Have thankless children and are choleric, But yielding to persuasion's gentle spell They let their savage mood be exorcised.

Look thou to the past, forget the present, think On all the woe thy sire and mother brought thee; Thence wilt thou draw this lesson without fail, Of evil pa.s.sion evil is the end.

Thou hast, alas, to p.r.i.c.k thy memory, Stern monitors, these ever-sightless...o...b...

O yield to us; just suitors should not need To be importunate, nor he that takes A favor lack the grace to make return.

OEDIPUS Grievous to me, my child, the boon ye win By pleading. Let it be then; have your way Only if come he must, I beg thee, friend, Let none have power to dispose of me.

THESEUS No need, Sir, to appeal a second time.

It likes me not to boast, but be a.s.sured Thy life is safe while any G.o.d saves mine.

[Exit THESEUS]

CHORUS (Str.) Who craves excess of days, Scorning the common span Of life, I judge that man A giddy wight who walks in folly's ways.

For the long years heap up a grievous load, Scant pleasures, heavier pains, Till not one joy remains For him who lingers on life's weary road And come it slow or fast, One doom of fate Doth all await, For dance and marriage bell, The dirge and funeral knell.

Death the deliverer freeth all at last.

(Ant.) Not to be born at all Is best, far best that can befall, Next best, when born, with least delay To trace the backward way.

For when youth pa.s.ses with its giddy train, Troubles on troubles follow, toils on toils, Pain, pain for ever pain; And none escapes life's coils.

Envy, sedition, strife, Carnage and war, make up the tale of life.

Last comes the worst and most abhorred stage Of unregarded age, Joyless, companionless and slow, Of woes the crowning woe.

(Epode) Such ills not I alone, He too our guest hath known, E'en as some headland on an iron-bound sh.o.r.e, Lashed by the wintry blasts and surge's roar, So is he buffeted on every side By drear misfortune's whelming tide, By every wind of heaven o'erborne Some from the sunset, some from orient morn, Some from the noonday glow.

Some from Rhipean gloom of everlasting snow.

ANTIGONE Father, methinks I see the stranger coming, Alone he comes and weeping plenteous tears.

OEDIPUS Who may he be?

ANTIGONE The same that we surmised.

From the outset--Polyneices. He is here.

[Enter POLYNEICES]

POLYNEICES Ah me, my sisters, shall I first lament My own afflictions, or my aged sire's, Whom here I find a castaway, with you, In a strange land, an ancient beggar clad In antic tatters, marring all his frame, While o'er the sightless...o...b.. his unkept locks Float in the breeze; and, as it were to match, He bears a wallet against hunger's pinch.

All this too late I learn, wretch that I am, Alas! I own it, and am proved most vile In my neglect of thee: I scorn myself.

But as almighty Zeus in all he doth Hath Mercy for co-partner of this throne, Let Mercy, father, also sit enthroned In thy heart likewise. For transgressions past May be amended, cannot be made worse.

Why silent? Father, speak, nor turn away, Hast thou no word, wilt thou dismiss me then In mute disdain, nor tell me why thou art wrath?

O ye his daughters, sisters mine, do ye This sullen, obstinate silence try to move.

Let him not spurn, without a single word Of answer, me the suppliant of the G.o.d.

ANTIGONE Tell him thyself, unhappy one, thine errand; For large discourse may send a thrill of joy, Or stir a chord of wrath or tenderness, And to the tongue-tied somehow give a tongue.

POLYNEICES Well dost thou counsel, and I will speak out.

First will I call in aid the G.o.d himself, Poseidon, from whose altar I was raised, With warrant from the monarch of this land, To parley with you, and depart unscathed.

These pledges, strangers, I would see observed By you and by my sisters and my sire.

Now, father, let me tell thee why I came.

I have been banished from my native land Because by right of primogeniture I claimed possession of thy sovereign throne Wherefrom Etocles, my younger brother, Ousted me, not by weight of precedent, Nor by the last arbitrament of war, But by his popular acts; and the prime cause Of this I deem the curse that rests on thee.

So likewise hold the soothsayers, for when I came to Argos in the Dorian land And took the king Adrastus' child to wife, Under my standard I enlisted all The foremost captains of the Apian isle, To levy with their aid that sevenfold host Of spearmen against Thebes, determining To oust my foes or die in a just cause.

Why then, thou askest, am I here today?

Father, I come a suppliant to thee Both for myself and my allies who now With squadrons seven beneath their seven spears Beleaguer all the plain that circles Thebes.