I agree with Tad, a great translation. Congratulations!

On 5/5/07, TheOldMole <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Jon -- I think this is terrific. What's the story on the whole project?
>
> Jon Corelis wrote:
> > [The palace of Theseus at Trozen, with its gates stage center.
> > Lamentation is heard from within.  Flanking the palace gates are cult
> > statues of Artemis and Aphrodite.  On stage are the Chorus. ]
> >
> > [enter Theseus]
> >
> > THESEUS:   Can any of you women tell me why
> > my palace rings with all this lamentation?
> > The oracle I've been to gave good news,
> > so this is not the welcome I expected.
> > Surely my grandfather Pittheus is well?
> > He's very old by now, but I'd still hate
> > to learn that he no longer was among us.
> > CHORUS:   It's not the old, Lord Theseus my king,
> > that you must mourn, but one who died too young.
> > THESEUS:   It's not my children, then, that we have lost?
> > CHORUS:   They live, but motherless, and you are widowed.
> > THESEUS:   What?  Has Phaedra died?  How did it happen?
> > CHORUS:   By hanging:  her own hands arranged the rope.
> > THESEUS:   Heart-struck by grief, or what was the disaster?
> > CHORUS:   That's all we know:  we've only just now come,
> > your majesty, to mourn your family's loss.
> > THESEUS:   Then how can I still wear this joyous garland
> > in token of an oracle's good news,
> > when what should have been prophesied was death?
> > You there inside:  unlock the palace doors,
> > unbar the gates, open them to show
> > my grieving eyes the worst thing they can see.
> >
> > CHORUS:   [sings to melody of Richard Lion-heart's "Ja nuns hons pris
> > ne dira sa raison"]:
> >
> > Unhappy princess who sailed from afar,
> > how could you harden your heart to this doom?
> > What made you leave this light where your loves are,
> > wrapping yourself in the after-life's gloom?
> > Losing yourself in a self-imposed strife,
> > now you have lost your life.
> >
> > [Chorus now sings as before, two lines at a time, with Theseus
> speaking]:
> >
> > CHORUS:   Sorrow is all that is left for your house,
> > which you once entered so joyous a bride …
> >
> > THESEUS:   Oh family, children, wife, what ancient curse
> > has worked its way through time for our destruction?
> >
> > CHORUS:   Sorrow is all for your desolate spouse,
> > and for your orphans, whose mother has died …
> >
> > THESEUS:   This wave of loss has broken over our house
> > and drowned us in a flood-tide of despair.
> >
> > CHORUS:   Sorrow no words can express or contain:
> > nothing is left but pain.
> >
> > CHORUS:   [speaking]  Don't grieve overmuch, my king:  your loss
> > is one that life has brought to many men.
> >
> > [in the following again Chorus sings, Theseus speaks, as before]
> >
> > CHORUS:   Theseus our king lives deprived of your love;
> > dying you leave him a life worse than death …
> >
> > THESEUS:   What forced her to this act?  In all my house
> > is there not one of you to speak the truth?
> >
> > CHORUS:   Though he still breathes in this bright world above,
> > he takes in darkness with every breath …
> >
> > THESEUS:   Most cherished of all women, you have flown
> > beyond our world and taken all joy with you.
> >
> > CHORUS:   Oh weeping monarch, I wish I could say
> > you won't grieve more today.
> >
> > [end Chorus singing]
> >
> > THESEUS:  But what's this tablet fastened to her hand?
> > Will it tell us what's happened?  Or does she mean
> > to beg me to be kind to our poor children
> > and not entrust them to a cold stepmother?
> > Be comforted, my love:  this hearth and home
> > will never know another wife than you.
> > And here the imprint of her signet ring
> > gleams with the last traces of loving light.
> > Unwrapping these bound strings that hold it sealed
> > will soon reveal what mystery it holds.
> > CHORUS:  Another punishment descends from heaven:
> > O wretched majesty!  O ruined house!
> > I have no other words for you than these.
> > THESEUS:  No!  No!  disaster swells with new destruction.
> > CHORUS:  What's wrong, my king?  Tell us, if we may know.
> > THESEUS:  This tablet cries aloud
> > things too dreadful for speech.
> > And is there no way out, is there no end
> > to loss and shock and pain?
> > What she has written wails the funeral dirge
> > for the royal house of Theseus, King of Athens.
> > CHORUS:  A dread beginning.  I dread what is to follow.
> > THESEUS:  It's bitterness itself to speak the words,
> > yet right demands that I must not suppress them.
> > Ho, citizens!  Hippolytos has dared
> > defile the sacred marriage of your king,
> > dishonoring the holy light of Zeus.
> > O Ocean Lord Poseidon, God of Sea,
> > you vowed me once three curses.  One of these
> > I hereby now invoke against my son:
> > destroy Hippolytos this very day,
> > if truly you have granted me this power.
> > CHORUS:  Your majesty, I beg you by the gods,
> > recall your curse, or else you may regret it.
> > THESEUS:  Impossible.  And I decree his exile.
> > Thus one of these two fates will be his doom:
> > Poseidon, if he heeds the curse I've laid,
> > will send him headlong to the halls of Hades,
> > or, failing that, he'll live in misery,
> > a wandering stranger in some foreign land.
> > CHORUS:  And even as we speak, Hippolytos
> > your son approaches.  But oh Lord Theseus,
> > relax your rage.  Your house needs better counsel.
> >
> >
>
> --
> Tad Richards
> http://www.opus40.org/tadrichards/
> http://opusforty.blogspot.com/
>