Читать книгу The Greatest German Classics (Vol. 1-14) - Various - Страница 221

Unblessèd one! So may the radiant sun

The final horror of our house behold!

Is not Electra here? That she with us

May also perish, nor her life prolong

For heavier destiny and direr woe.

'Tis well—I follow, priestess! Fratricide

Is an old custom of our ancient house;

And you, ye gods, I thank, that ye resolve

Childless to root me hence. Thee let me counsel

To view too fondly neither sun nor stars.

Come, follow to the gloomy realms below!

As dragons, gender'd in the sulphur pool,

Swallow each other with voracious rage,

So our accursed race destroys itself.

Childless and guiltless come below with me!

There's pity in thy look! oh, gaze not so—

'Twas with such looks that Clytemnestra sought

An entrance to her son Orestes' heart,

And yet his uprais'd arm her bosom pierc'd.

His mother fell!—Appear, indignant shade!

Within the circle step, ye fiends of hell,

Be present at the welcome spectacle,

The last, most horrible that ye prepare!

Nor hate, nor vengeance whets the poniard now;

A loving sister is constrain'd to deal

The fatal blow. Weep not! Thou hast no guilt.

From earliest infancy I naught have lov'd,

As thee I could have lov'd, my sister. Come,

The weapon raise, spare not, this bosom rend,

And make an outlet for its boiling streams!

[He sinks exhausted.]