Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1898) v3.djvu/369

Ah, slay me not untimely! Sweet is light:
Constrain me not to see the nether gloom!
'Twas I first called thee father, thou me child. 1220
'Twas I first throned my body on thy knees,
And gave thee sweet caresses and received.
And this thy word was: "Ah, my little maid,
Blest shall I see thee in a husband's halls
Living and blooming worthily of me?" 1225
And, as I twined my fingers in thy beard,
Whereto I now cling, thus I answered thee:
"And what of thee? Shall I greet thy grey hairs,
Father, with loving welcome in mine halls,
Repaying all thy fostering toil for me?" 1230
I keep remembrance of that converse yet:
Thou hast forgotten, thou wouldst murder me.
Ah no!—by Pelops, by thy father Atreus,
And by this mother, whose first travail-pangs
Now in this second anguish are renewed! 1235
What part have I in Paris' rape of Helen?
Why, father, should he for my ruin have come?
Look on me—give me one glance—oh, one kiss,
That I may keep in death from thee but this
Memorial, if thou heed my pleading not. 1240
Brother, small help canst thou be to thy friends;
Yet weep with me, yet supplicate thy sire
To slay thy sister not!—some sense of ill
Even in wordless infants is inborn.
Lo, by his silence he implores thee, father— 1245
Have mercy, have compassion on my youth!
Yea, by thy beard we pray thee, loved ones twain,
A nestling one, and one a daughter grown.
In one cry summing all, I must prevail!
Sweet, passing sweet, is light for men to see, 1250