OEDIPUS AT COLONUS
We move hushed lips in reverent piety.
But now some godless man,
’Tis rumoured, here abides;
The precincts through I scan,
Yet wot not where he hides,
The wretch profane!
I search and search in vain.
Oedipus
I am that man; I know you near,
Ears to the blind, they say, are eyes.
Chorus
O dread to see and dread to hear!
Oedipus
O sirs, I am no outlaw under ban.
Chorus
Who can he be—Zeus save us!—this old man?
Oedipus
No favourite of fate,
That ye should envy his estate,
O, Sirs, would any happy mortal, say,
Grope by the light of other eyes his way,
Or face the storm upon so frail a stay?
Chorus
Wast thou then sightless from thy birth? (Ant. 1)
Evil, methinks, and long
Thy pilgrimage on earth.
Yet add not curse to curse and wrong to wrong.
I warn thee, trespass not
Within this hallowed spot,
