Читать книгу The Greatest German Classics (Vol. 1-14) - Various - Страница 323

Thy countrymen; no doubt they have renew'd

The pleasing picture of return.

IPHIGENIA (after a pause)

Doth man

Lay undisputed claim to noble deeds?

Doth he alone to his heroic breast

Clasp the impossible? What call we great?

What deeds, though oft narrated, still uplift

with shuddering horror the narrator's soul,

But those which, with improbable success,

The valiant have attempted? Shall the man

Who all alone steals on his foes by night,

And raging like an unexpected fire,

Destroys the slumbering host, and press'd at length

By rous'd opponents on his foeman's steeds,

Retreats with booty—be alone extoll'd?

Or he who, scorning safety, boldly roams

Through woods and dreary wilds, to scour the land

Of thieves and robbers? Is naught left for us?

Must gentle woman quite forego her nature,

Force against force employ, like Amazons

Usurp the sword from man, and bloodily

Revenge oppression? In my heart I feel

The stirrings of a noble enterprize;

But if I fail—severe reproach, alas!

And bitter misery will be my doom.

Thus on my knees I supplicate the gods!

Oh, are ye truthful, as men say ye are,

Now prove it by your countenance and aid;

Honor the truth in me! Attend, O king

A secret plot deceitfully is laid;

Touching the captives thou dost ask in vain;

They have departed hence and seek their friends,

Who, with the ship, await them on the shore.

The eldest—whom dire madness lately seiz'd,

And hath abandon'd now—he is Orestes,

My brother, and the other Pylades,

His early friend and faithful confidant.

From Delphi, Phoebus sent them to this shore

With a divine command to steal away

The image of Diana, and to him

Bear back the sister thither, and for this

He promised to the blood-stained matricide,

The Fury-haunted son, deliverance.

I have surrender'd now into thy hands

The remnants of the house of Tantalus.

Destroy us—if thou canst.