ELECTRA
Electra
Ah, noble friends ye come, I see
To ease my misery;
Your kind intent, O trust me, I perceive.
Yet can I never leave
My task, each day, each hour, anew to shed
Tears o’er my father dead.
O kindly hearts, so ready to repay
All friendship owes,
Leave me, O leave me (this one boon I pray)
To my wild woes.
Chorus
Yet him, thy sire, from Acheron’s dark shore (Ant. 1)
By prayers or cries thou never can’st restore,
No, never more;
And by excess of grief thou perishest.
If remedy be none, were it not best
From grief to rest?
O rest thee! why
Thus nurse thy fruitless misery?
Electra
That child’s insensate who remembers not
His sire’s sad lot.
O bird of Zeus, to thine I’ll set my note,
Who with full throat
For Itys, Itys griev’st from eve till morn.
Ah! Niobe forlorn,
How blest art thou who tombed in stone dost lie
And weep for aye!
Chorus
Not thou alone, hast sorrow; others share (Str. 2)
Thy load of care.
