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The Tragedies of Seneca: Translated into English Verse, to Which Have Been Appended Comparative Analyses of the Corresponding Greek and Roman Plays, and a Mythological IndexSeneca, Lucius Annaeus

General

The Tragedies of Seneca: Translated into English Verse, to Which Have Been Appended Comparative Analyses of the Corresponding Greek and Roman Plays, and a Mythological Index

Name: The Tragedies of Seneca: Translated into English Verse, to Which Have Been Appended Comparative Analyses of the Corresponding Greek and Roman Plays, and a Mythological Index
Author: Seneca, Lucius Annaeus

Seneca, Lucius Annaeus

Mythology, Classical -- Drama; Seneca, Lucius Annaeus, approximately 4 B.C.-65 A.D. -- Translations into English

Whoever shuns the middle course                                  675
    Can never in safe pathways go.
    When once bold Phaëthon essayed
    Within his father's car to stand
    And give the day, and did not fare
    Along the accustomed track, but sought
    With wandering wheels to make his way                            680
    With Phoebus' torch 'midst unknown stars--
    Himself he ruined and the earth
    In one destruction. Daedalus
    The middle course of heaven pursued,
    And so to peaceful shores attained
    And gave no sea its name. His son,                               685
    Young Icarus, dared rival birds
    In flight, despised his father's wings,
    And soared high up into the realm
    Of Phoebus' rays: headlong he fell
    And to an unknown sea his name
    He gave. So are great fortunes joined                            690
    To mighty ills.
    Let others then as fortunate
    And great be hailed; I wish no share
    Of popular renown. My boat
    Is frail and needs must hug the shore.
    And let no strong wind force my bark                             695
    Far out to sea; for fortune spares
    Safe-harbored boats, but seeks the ships
    In mid sea proudly sailing on,
    Their topsails in the clouds.
    But why with pallid face, in fear,                               700
    Like some Bacchante smitten sore
    With madness, comes our princess forth?
    What new reverse of fortune's wheel
    Has come to vex thy tortured soul?
  For though thou speakest ne'er a word, poor queen,
  Whate'er thou hidest, in thy face is seen.


FOOTNOTES:

[27] Reading, _celsus_.

[28] Reading, _ripis_.

[29] Reading, _fluentem_.


ACT III

  _Deianira_ [_hurrying distractedly out of the palace_]: A nameless
    terror fills my stricken limbs,                                  705
  My hair stands up in horror, and my soul,
  But now so passion tossed, is dumb with fear;
  My heart beats wildly, and my liver throbs
  With pulsing veins. As when the storm-tossed sea                   710
  Still heaves and swells, although the skies are clear
  And winds have died away; so is my mind
  Still tossed and restless, though my fear is stayed.
  When once the fortunate begin to feel
  The wrath of god, their sorrows never cease.
  For so does fortune ever end in woe.

  _Nurse:_ What new distress, poor soul, has come to thee?           715

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

The Tragedies of Seneca: Translated into English Verse, to Which Have Been Appended Comparative Analyses of the Corresponding Greek and Roman Plays, and a Mythological IndexSeneca, Lucius Annaeus

General

The Tragedies of Seneca: Translated into English Verse, to Which Have Been Appended Comparative Analyses of the Corresponding Greek and Roman Plays, and a Mythological Index

Seneca, Lucius Annaeus

Mythology, Classical -- Drama; Seneca, Lucius Annaeus, approximately 4 B.C.-65 A.D. -- Translations into English

Whoever shuns the middle course                                  675
    Can never in safe pathways go.
    When once bold Phaëthon essayed
    Within his father's car to stand
    And give the day, and did not fare
    Along the accustomed track, but sought
    With wandering wheels to make his way                            680
    With Phoebus' torch 'midst unknown stars--
    Himself he ruined and the earth
    In one destruction. Daedalus
    The middle course of heaven pursued,
    And so to peaceful shores attained
    And gave no sea its name. His son,                               685
    Young Icarus, dared rival birds
    In flight, despised his father's wings,
    And soared high up into the realm
    Of Phoebus' rays: headlong he fell
    And to an unknown sea his name
    He gave. So are great fortunes joined                            690
    To mighty ills.
    Let others then as fortunate
    And great be hailed; I wish no share
    Of popular renown. My boat
    Is frail and needs must hug the shore.
    And let no strong wind force my bark                             695
    Far out to sea; for fortune spares
    Safe-harbored boats, but seeks the ships
    In mid sea proudly sailing on,
    Their topsails in the clouds.
    But why with pallid face, in fear,                               700
    Like some Bacchante smitten sore
    With madness, comes our princess forth?
    What new reverse of fortune's wheel
    Has come to vex thy tortured soul?
  For though thou speakest ne'er a word, poor queen,
  Whate'er thou hidest, in thy face is seen.


FOOTNOTES:

[27] Reading, _celsus_.

[28] Reading, _ripis_.

[29] Reading, _fluentem_.


ACT III

  _Deianira_ [_hurrying distractedly out of the palace_]: A nameless
    terror fills my stricken limbs,                                  705
  My hair stands up in horror, and my soul,
  But now so passion tossed, is dumb with fear;
  My heart beats wildly, and my liver throbs
  With pulsing veins. As when the storm-tossed sea                   710
  Still heaves and swells, although the skies are clear
  And winds have died away; so is my mind
  Still tossed and restless, though my fear is stayed.
  When once the fortunate begin to feel
  The wrath of god, their sorrows never cease.
  For so does fortune ever end in woe.

  _Nurse:_ What new distress, poor soul, has come to thee?           715

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

The Tragedies of Seneca: Translated into English Verse, to Which Have Been Appended Comparative Analyses of the Corresponding Greek and Roman Plays, and a Mythological Index

The Tragedies of Seneca: Translated into English Verse, to Which Have Been Appended Comparative Analyses of the Corresponding Greek and Roman Plays, and a Mythological Index

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