CHORUS
Woe for my lost hopes of home!
Woe's me, thou hast slain me, my king,
Me thy shipmate, hapless man!
Woful-souled woman too!
TECMESSA
Since thus it is with him, 'tis mine to wail.
CHORUS
By whose hand has he wrought this luckless deed?
TECMESSA
By his own hand, 'tis evident. This sword
Whereon he fell, planted in earth, convicts him.
CHORUS
Woe for my blind folly! Lone in thy blood thou lyest, from friends' help afar.
And I the wholly witless, the all unwary,
Forbore to watch thee. Where, where
Lyeth the fatally named, intractable Aias?
TECMESSA
None must behold him. I will shroud him wholly
In this enfolding mantle; for no man
Who loved him could endure to see him thus
Through nostrils and through red gash spouting up
The darkened blood from his self-stricken wound.
Ah me, what shall I do? What friend shall lift thee?
Where is Teucer? Timely indeed would he now come,
To compose duly his slain brother's corpse.
hapless Aias, who wast once so great,
Now even thy foes might dare to mourn thy fall.
CHORUS
'Twas fate's will, alas, 'twas fate then for thou
Stubborn of soul at length to work out a dark
Doom of ineffable miseries. Such the dire
Fury of passionate hate
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