Even for strangers' pain wrings human hearts.
Tell on, that, knowing, to thy brother I
May bear the joyless tale that must be heard.
Yea, pity dwells, albeit ne'er in churls,
Yet in the wise[1]:—this is the penalty 295
Laid on the wise for souls too finely wrought.
Chorus.
His heart's desire, the same is also mine:
For, from the town far dwelling, nought know I
The city's sins: now fain would I too hear.
Electra.
Tell will I—if I may. Sure I may tell 300
A friend my grievous fortune and my sire's.
Since thou dost wake the tale, I pray thee, stranger,
Report to Orestes all mine ills and his.
Tell in what raiment I am hovel-housed,[2]
Under what squalor I am crushed, and dwell 305
Under what roof, after a palace-home;—
How mine own shuttle weaves with pain my robes,
Else must I want, all vestureless my frame;—
How from the stream myself the water bear;—
Banned from the festal rite, denied the dance;— 310
No part have I with wives, who am a maid,
No part in Kastor, though they plighted me
- ↑ This word is used in the somewhat esoteric sense in which it was employed by Greek thinkers to denote those in whom the moral and æsthetic faculties, as well as the intellectual, were cultivated to the highest point.
- ↑ So MSS. Others would read αὐαίνομαι, "wastes my life away." Prof. Tucker suggests ἀλᾴζομαι (ironical) "I am fair-arrayed."
