Racine: Phaedra

56
SOPHOCLES
On Creon, and my speech. There lives not man
Whose life shall waste more wretchedly than thine.
CEdipus.—Can this be longer borne ! Away with thee
A curse light on thee ! Wilt thou not depart ?
Wilt thou not turn and from this house go back ?
Teiresias.—I had not come, had'st thou not called me here.
CEdipus.—I knew not thou would'st speak so foolishly
Else I had hardly fetched thee to my house.
Teiresias.—We then, so seems it thee, are fools from birth,
But, unto those who gave thee birth, seem wise.
[Turns to go.
CEdipus [starting forward].—What? Stay thy foot.
What mortal gave me birth ?
Teiresias.—This day shall give thy birth, and work thy doom.
CEdipus.—What riddles dark and dim thou lov'st to speak.
Teiresias.—Yes. But thy skill excels in solving such.
CEdipus.—Scoff thou at that in which thou'lt find me strong.
Teiresias.—And yet this same success has worked thy fall.
CEdipus.—I little care, if I have saved the state.
Teiresias.—Well, then, I go. Do thou, boy, lead me on
CEdipus.—Let him lead on. Most hateful art thou near
Thou can'st not pain me more when thou art gone.
Teiresias.—I go then, having said the things I came
To say. No fear of thee compels me. Thine
Is not the power to hurt me. And I say.
This man whom thou dost seek with hue-and-cry.
As murderer of Laios, he is here.
In show an alien sojourner, but in truth
A home-born Theban. No delight to him
Will that discovery bring. Blind, having seen.
Poor, having rolled in wealth—he, with a staff
Feeling his way, to a strange land shall go
And to his sons shall he be seen at once
Father and brother, and of her who bore him
Husband and son, sharing his father's bed,
His father's murd'rer. Go thou then within,
And brood o'er this, and, if thou find'st me fail.
Say that my skill in prophecy is gone.
[Exeunt CEdipus and Teiresias.