Dream not that we can act as we desire, Yet avoid payment of the price in pain.
Well, fortune goes by turns. This man was fiery And insolent once: 'tis mine now to exult.
I charge thee, bury him not, lest by that act Thou thyself shouldst be digging thine own grave, LEADERMenelaus, do not first lay down wise precepts, Then thyself offer outrage to the dead.
TEUCER (to the CHORUS)
Never, friends, shall I marvel any more, If one of low birth acts injuriously, When they who are accounted nobly born Can utter such injurious calumnies.
(To MENELAUS)
Come, once more speak. You say you brought him hither?
Took him to be a champion of the Greeks?
Did he not sail as his own master, freely?
How are you his chieftain? How have you the right To lord it o'er the folk he brought from home?
As Sparta's lord you came, not as our master.
In no way was it your prerogative To rule him, any more than he could you.
As vassal of others you sailed hither, not As captain of us all, still less of Ajax.
Go, rule those whom you may rule: chastise them With proud words. But this man, though you forbid me, Aye, and your fellow-captain, by just right Will I lay in his grave, scorning your threats.
It was not for the sake of your lost wife He came to Troy, like your toil-broken serfs, But for the sake of oaths that he had sworn, Not for yours. What cared he for nobodies?
Then come again and bring more heralds hither, And the captain of the host. For such as you I would not turn my head, for all your bluster.
LEADER
Such speech I like not, either, in peril's midst:
For harsh words rankle, be they ne'er so just.
MENELAUS
This bowman, it seems, has pride enough to spare.
TEUCER
Yes, 'tis no mean craft I have made my own.
MENELAUS
How big would be your boasts, had you a shield!
TEUCER
Shieldless, I would outmatch you panoplied.
MENELAUS
How terrible a courage dwells within your tongue!
TEUCER
He may be bold of heart whose side right favours.
MENELAUS
Is it right that my assassin should be honoured?
TEUCER
Assassin? How strange, if, though slain, you live!
MENELAUS
Heaven saved me: I was slain in his intent.
TEUCER
Do not dishonour then the gods who saved you.
MENELAUS
What, I rebel against the laws of heaven?
TEUCER, Yes, if you come to rob the dead of burial.
MENELAUS
My own foes! How could I endure such wrong?
TEUCER
Did Ajax ever confront you as your foe?
MENELAUS
He loathed me, and I him, as well you know.
TEUCER
Because to defraud him you intrigued for votes.
MENELAUS
It was the judges cast him, and not I.
TEUCER
Much secret villainy you could make seem fair.
MENELAUS
That saying will bring someone into trouble.
TEUCER
Not greater trouble than we mean to inflict.
MENELAUS
My one last word: this man must not have burial.
TEUCER
Then hear my answer: burial he shall have.
MENELAUS
Once did I see a fellow bold of tongue, Who had urged a crew to sail in time of storm;Yet no voice had you found in him, when winds Began to blow; but hidden beneath his cloak The mariners might trample on him at will.
And so with you and your fierce railleries, Perchance a great storm, though from a little cloud Its breath proceed, shall quench your blatant outcry.
TEUCER
And I once saw a fellow filled with folly, Who gloried scornfully in his neighbour's woes.
So it came to pass that someone like myself, And of like mood, beholding him spoke thus.
"Man, act not wickedly towards the dead;
Or, if thou dost, be sure that thou wilt rue it."Thus did he monish that infatuate man.
And lo! yonder I see him; and as I think, He is none else but thou. Do I speak riddles?
MENELAUS
I go. It were disgrace should any know I had fallen to chiding where I might chastise.
TEUCER
Begone then. For to me 'twere worst disgrace That I should listen to a fool's idle blustering.
(MENELAUS and his retinue depart.)
CHORUS (chanting)
Soon mighty and fell will the strife be begun.
But speedily now, Teucer, I pray thee, Seek some fit place for his hollow grave, Which men's memories evermore shall praise, As he lies there mouldering at rest.
(TECMESSA enters with EURYSACES.)
TEUCER
Look yonder, where the child and wife of Ajax Are hastening hither in good time to tend The funeral rites of his unhappy corpse.
My child, come hither. Stand near and lay thy hand As a suppliant on thy father who begat thee.
And kneel imploringly with locks of hair Held in thy hand-mine, and hers, and last thine-The suppliant's treasure. But if any Greek By violence should tear thee from this corpse, For that crime from the land may he be cast Unburied, and his whole race from the root Cut off, even as I sever this lock.
There, take it, boy, and keep it. Let none seek To move thee; but still kneel there and cling fast.
And you, like men, no women, by his side Stand and defend him till I come again, When I have dug his grave, though all forbid.
(TEUCER goes out.)
CHORUS (singing)
strophe 1
When will this agony draw to a close?
When will it cease, the last of our years of exile?
Years that bring me labour accurst of hurtling spears, Woe that hath no respite or end, But wide-spread over the plains of Troy Works sorrow and shame for Hellas' sons.
antistrophe 1
Would he had vanished away from the earth, Rapt to the skies, or sunk to devouring Hades, He who first revealed to the Greeks the use of arms Leagued in fierce confederate war!
Ah, toils eternally breeding toils!
Yea, he was the fiend who wrought man's ruin.
strophe 2
The wretch accurst, what were his gifts?
Neither the glad, festival wreath, Nor the divine, mirth-giving wine-cup;No music of flutes, soothing and sweet:
Slumber by night, blissful and calm, None he bequeathed us.
And love's joys, alas! love did he banish from me.
Here couching alone neglected, With hair by unceasing dews drenched evermore, we curse Thy shores, O cruel Ilium.
antistrophe 2
Erewhile against terror by night, javelin or sword, firm was our trust:
He was our shield, valiant Ajax.
But now a malign demon of fate Claims him. Alas! When, when again Shall joy befall me?