AGAMEMNON BY AESCHYLUS, SELECTED STARTERS: TRANSLATED BY ANNE CARSON
this house is in trouble.
this house if it could talk would tell a tale.
but me – i talk to those who know and then i lose my memory.
but some god hears the cry, some apollo or zeus or pan, and sooner or later sends down the vengeance.
now things are where they are. and will end where they’re destined to end. not by burning things in secret, not by libations poured in secret, not by tears will you turn away the wrath of offerings that were unholy.
what’s happened? what news? what rumour? what message?
all the altars in the city, high and low, heavenly and earthly, blaze with offerings.
but let the good prevail.
if he likes this name i’ll use it.
i can compare with zeus nothing except zeus.
and the grace of the gods, i’m pretty sure, is a grace that comes by violence.
an answer more bitter than the question.
which of these is apart from evil?
it is delusion makes men bold, knocks them sideways.
what happened then i did not see and cannot tell.
justice tips her scales so that we learn by suffering.
but the future – who knows? it’s here soon enough. why grieve in advance?
whatever turns up, i hope it’s happy.
tell me, unless you don’t want to.
unless some god fooled me.
i would not trust a mind asleep.
but tell me your whole story uninterrupted.
i’m ready for blessings, many blessings.
do you think the gods ignore a man who steps on holy things?
it shines like bad bronze, black on the touchstone.
if you befriend him, justice will take you down.
a phantom seems to rule his house.
grief sits at the hearth of every house.
i’m not sure what lurks in the dark.
certainly the gods see all this killing.
i prefer to remain obscure.
let me keep my little life to myself.
may you launch no more arrows against us.
yousharknotpass
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