Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1896) v2.djvu/204

Thou, O mine Hector, wast my fitting mate
In birth and wisdom, mighty in wealth and valour.
Stainless from my sire's halls thou tookest me, 670
And first didst yoke with thine my maiden couch.
Now hast thou perished: sea-borne I shall be,
Spear-won, to Hellas, unto thraldom's yoke.
Hath not the doom then of Polyxena,
Whom thou lamentest, lesser ills than mine? 675
With me not even is hope, which lingers last
With all; nor with far vision of good I cheat
Mine heart, though sweet thereof the day-dream were.

Even as mine is thy calamity:
Thy wail doth teach me all my depth of woes. 680

Though never yet I stepped aboard a ship,
From pictures seen and hearsay know I this,
That, if there lie a storm not passing great
On mariners, for deliverance all bestir them:
This standeth by the helm, that by the sail; 685
That baleth ship: but if the sea's full flood
In turmoil overwhelm them, cowed by fate
To the waves' driving they commit themselves.
So I withal, though many a woe is mine,
Am dumb, and I refrain my lips from speech, 690
For the Gods' misery-surge o'ermastereth me.
But, dear my daughter, let be Hector's fate,
Seeing no tears of thine shall ransom him;
But honour him that is to-day thy lord,
Tendering the sweet lure of thy winsomeness. 695