444
Fragment of a Greek Tragedy.
| Chorus. | |
Strophe. In speculation I would not willingly acquire a name For ill-digested thought; But after pondering much To this conclusion I at last have come: Life is uncertain. This truth I have written deep In my reflective midriff On tablets not of wax, Nor with a pen did I inscribe it there, For many reasons: Life, I say, is not A stranger to uncertainty. Not from the flight of omen-yelling fowls This fact did I discover, Nor did the Delphic tripod bark it out, Nor yet Dodona. Its native ingenuity sufficed My self-taught diaphragm. Antistrophe. Why should I mention The Inachean daughter, loved of Zeus? Her whom of old the gods, More provident than kind, Provided with four hoofs, two horns, one tail, A gift not asked for, And sent her forth to learn The unfamiliar science O:f how to chew the cud. She therefore, all about the Argive fields, Went cropping pale green grass and nettle-tops, Nor did they disagree with her. But yet, howe'er nutritious, such repasts I do not hanker after: Never may Cypris for her seat select My dappled liver! | |