ANTIGONE
(Str. 1)
Woe, woe! on this sad day
We sisters of one blasted stock
must bow beneath the shock,
Must weep and weep the curse that lay
On him our sire, for whom
In life, a life-long world of care
‘Twas ours to bear,
In death must face the gloom
That wraps his tomb.
What tongue can tell
That sight ineffable?
CHORUS
What mean ye, maidens?
ANTIGONE
All is but surmise.
CHORUS
Is he then gone?
ANTIGONE
Gone as ye most might wish.
Not in battle or sea storm,
But reft from sight,
By hands invisible borne
To viewless fields of night.
Ah me! on us too night has come,
The night of mourning. Wither roam
O’er land or sea in our distress
Eating the bread of bitterness?
ISMENE
I know not. O that Death
Might nip my breath,
And let me share my aged father’s fate.
I cannot live a life thus desolate.
CHORUS
Best of daughters, worthy pair,
What heaven brings ye needs must bear,
Fret no more ‘gainst Heaven’s will;
Fate hath dealt with you not ill.
ANTIGONE
(Ant. 1)
Love can turn past pain to bliss,
What seemed bitter now is sweet.
Ah me! that happy toil is sweet.
The guidance of those dear blind feet.
Dear father, wrapt for aye in nether gloom,
E’en in the tomb
Never shalt thou lack of love repine,
Her love and mine.
CHORUS
His fate–
ANTIGONE
Is even as he planned.
CHORUS
How so?
ANTIGONE
He died, so willed he, in a foreign land.
Lapped in kind earth he sleeps his long last sleep,
And o’er his grave friends weep.
How great our lost these streaming eyes can tell,
This sorrow naught can quell.
Thou hadst thy wish ‘mid strangers thus to die,
But I, ah me, not by.
ISMENE
Alas, my sister, what new fate
* * * * *
* * * * *
Befalls us orphans desolate?
CHORUS
His end was blessed; therefore, children, stay
Your sorrow. Man is born to fate a prey.
ANTIGONE
(Str. 2)
Sister, let us back again.
ISMENE
Why return?
ANTIGONE
My soul is fain–
ISMENE
Is fain?
ANTIGONE
To see the earthy bed.
ISMENE
Sayest thou?
ANTIGONE
Where our sire is laid.
ISMENE
Nay, thou can’st not, dost not see–
ANTIGONE
Sister, wherefore wroth with me?
ISMENE
Know’st not–beside–
ANTIGONE
More must I hear?
ISMENE
Tombless he died, none near.
ANTIGONE
Lead me thither; slay me there.
ISMENE
How shall I unhappy fare,
Friendless, helpless, how drag on
A life of misery alone?
CHORUS
(Ant. 2)
Fear not, maids–
ANTIGONE
Ah, whither flee?
CHORUS
Refuge hath been found.
ANTIGONE
For me?
CHORUS
Where thou shalt be safe from harm.
ANTIGONE
I know it.
CHORUS
Why then this alarm?
ANTIGONE
How again to get us home
I know not.
CHORUS
Why then this roam?
ANTIGONE
Troubles whelm us–
CHORUS
As of yore.
ANTIGONE
Worse than what was worse before.
CHORUS
Sure ye are driven on the breakers’ surge.
ANTIGONE
Alas! we are.
CHORUS
Alas! ’tis so.
ANTIGONE
Ah whither turn, O Zeus? No ray
Of hope to cheer the way
Whereon the fates our desperate voyage urge.
[Enter THESEUS]
THESEUS
Dry your tears; when grace is shed
On the quick and on the dead
By dark Powers beneficent,
Over-grief they would resent.
ANTIGONE
Aegeus’ child, to thee we pray.
THESEUS
What the boon, my children, say.
ANTIGONE
With our own eyes we fain would see
Our father’s tomb.
THESEUS
That may not be.
ANTIGONE
What say’st thou, King?
THESEUS
My children, he
Charged me straitly that no moral
Should approach the sacred portal,
Or greet with funeral litanies
The hidden tomb wherein he lies;
Saying, “If thou keep’st my hest
Thou shalt hold thy realm at rest.”
The God of Oaths this promise heard,
And to Zeus I pledged my word.
ANTIGONE
Well, if he would have it so,
We must yield. Then let us go
Back to Thebes, if yet we may
Heal this mortal feud and stay
The self-wrought doom
That drives our brothers to their tomb.
THESEUS
Go in peace; nor will I spare
Ought of toil and zealous care,
But on all your needs attend,
Gladdening in his grave my friend.
CHORUS
Wail no more, let sorrow rest,
All is ordered for the best.
FOOTNOTES
- The Greek text for the passages marked here and later in the text have been lost.
- To avoid the blessing, still a secret, he resorts to a commonplace; literally, “For what generous man is not (in befriending others) a friend to himself?”
- Creon desires to bury Oedipus on the confines of Thebes so as to avoid the pollution and yet offer due rites at his tomb. Ismene tells him of the latest oracle and interprets to him its purport, that some day the Theban invaders of Athens will be routed in a battle near the grave of Oedipus.
- The Thebans sprung from the Dragon’s teeth sown by Cadmus.
