Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Plumptre 1878).djvu/400

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

302
AIAS.

And thou may'st see his deeds, and how he fares.

Aias. Ah, sailor friends! alone of all my friends,
Alone abiding in your steadfast law,350
Behold how great a surge of blood-flecked foam
Now whirls around me.

Chor. [To Tecmessa.] Ah me! Thou dost too true a witness bear:
His deeds show clearly that his sense is gone.

Aias, Ο race, well versed in all the sailor's art,
Who camest, plying still the seaman's oar,
Thee, thee alone I see as help in grief;360
Yet . . . . kill me, kill, I pray.

Chor. Hush! speak not so, nor, curing ill with ill,
Make sorrow's weight yet greater than it is.

Aias. Me, the bold, the brave-hearted,
Fearless in fight with the foe,
Thou see'st me show the prowess of mine hand
On beasts unformidable.
Ah! woe is me for the shame,
The scorn that falls on me.

Tec. Ah, my lord Aias, speak not thus, I pray.

Aias. Away with thee! What? Wilt thou not withdraw?370
Ai! ai!

Tec. Oh! by the Gods, give way, and be advised.

Aias. Ah! woe is me, who let the cursed ones
Slip from my hands, and falling on the herds
Of horned oxen, and those noble flocks,
Shed their dark gore.

Chor. Why dost thou grieve at what is gone and past?
These things are so, and cannot be undone.

Aias. Ο thou whose eye sees all things evermore,
Tool of all evil, child of Lartios,380
Of all the host the foulest scoundrel-knave,