Philoktetes Part 15

Let him stay in this place. We have his bow.

Teuker is with us, and he is skillful, and I can master those weapons too.

I aim straight as well. Why would we need you?

Goodbye. Goodbye to Lemnos.

Let's go. Perhaps soon I'll win the prize and fame that belong to you.

PHILOKTETES

Oh, what will I do? Will you stand before the Greeks cloaked in the glory of my weapons?

ODYSSEUS

Don't speak to me. We are leaving now.

PHILOKTETES

You have nothing to say to me, son of Achilles?

Will you leave without a word?

ODYSSEUS

Come along now, boy. Don't look at him, even though your spirit prompts you to.

That may destroy the advantage we have won.

PHILOKTETES

You sailors, will you leave me?

Do you have no pity?

CHORUS

The young lord is our master. His words are ours.

NEOPTOLEMOS

Odysseus will chide me for pitying him.

You men stay here until the other sailors make ready and we have prayed to the G.o.ds of this place.

Philoktetes may think better of us.

Let us go, Odysseus. You men, come quickly as soon as we call for you.

PHILOKTETES

Rock hollow, cave, sunny, icy, It is true that I was not meant to leave you.

You will be a witness to my life and death.

Rock walls, filled with my cries of anguish, what will my daily ration be now?

What hope have I of dealing with my fate, now that the birds that fled from me above will come down through the winds to destroy me?

I have no strength left.

CHORUS

You brought this on yourself, unbending man.

You could have found a way out when it was possible to make a sensible choice, but you took the worse over the better fate.

PHILOKTETES

Sorrow and sadness are mine. I am broken by suffering, and now I must live alone; I will live and die in this place.

I cannot feed myself by my winged arrows or my strong hands. Unexpectedly, his tricky words overtook my judgment.

I wish the one who set this trap were given pains to match my own.

CHORUS

The G.o.ds' will brought you down, not guile, not tricks in which I have had a hand.

Let loose your hatred, set aside your curses.

I have only the fear that you'll refuse my friendship.

PHILOKTETES

He sits laughing on the sh.o.r.es of the wine-dark sea.

He holds in his hands the bow that sustained me, which no mortal but I had ever touched.

Beloved bow, made by caring hands, the prize of Herakles, who'll never use you again, if you could see, you would pity me.

You have a new master, a guileful man.

He will bend you now.

You will know treachery, know my hated enemy, and know countless evils rising from his deceit.

CHORUS

One should take care to say what is just, and having said it, keep his tongue from ire.

Odysseus follows the orders of many, and he has done this in obedience to his friends.

PHILOKTETES

O birds, o beasts that feed upon the hills, you no longer need run away from my cave.

I no longer have my killing weapons.

Come down. The time is right for you to feed on my ravaged, quivering body; I will soon die. How can I keep myself alive?

Who can live on breezes and not earthly food?

CHORUS

By the G.o.ds, if you still hold the G.o.ds in respect, come to a stranger who approaches with good heart.

Think closely of what you are doing.

It is up to you to flee your destruction.

To feed fate with your flesh is pitiful.

Your body will never learn to endure the pains, the ten thousand pains of the sickness possessing you.

PHILOKTETES

You pour salt on old wounds. Still, you are better than any of those who came to me before.

Why have you also wounded me?