Cyclops Oh! oh! my once bright eye is burnt to cinders now.
Chorus Sweet indeed the triumph-song; pray sing it to us, Cyclops.
Cyclops Oh! oh! once more; what outrage on me and what ruin! But never shall ye escape this rocky cave unpunished, ye worthless creatures; for I will stand in the entrance of the cleft and fit my hands into it thus.
Chorus Why dost thou cry out, Cyclops?
Cyclops I am undone.
Chorus Thou art indeed a sorry sight.
Cyclops Aye, and a sad one, too.
Chorus Didst fall among the coals in a drunken fit?
Cyclops Noman has undone me.
Chorus Then there is no one hurting thee after all.
Cyclops Noman is blinding me.
Chorus Then art thou not blind.
Cyclops As blind as thou, forsooth.
Chorus How, pray, could no man have made thee blind?
Cyclops Thou mockest me; but where is this Noman.
Chorus Nowhere, Cyclops.
Cyclops It was the stranger, vile wretch! who proved my ruin, that thou mayst understand rightly, by swilling me with the liquor he gave me.
Chorus Ah! wine is a terrible foe, hard to wrestle with.
Cyclops Tell me, I adjure thee, have they escaped or are they still within?
Chorus Here they are ranged in silence, taking the rock to screen them.
Cyclops On which side?
Chorus On thy right.
Cyclops Where?
Chorus Close against the rock. Hast caught them?
Cyclops Trouble on trouble! I have run my skull against the rock and cracked it.
Chorus Aye, and they are escaping thee.
Cyclops This way, was it not? ’Twas this way thou saidst.
Chorus No, not this way.
Cyclops Which then?
Chorus They are getting round thee on the left.
Cyclops Alas! I am being mocked; ye jeer me in my evil plight.
Chorus They are no longer there; but facing thee that stranger stands.
Cyclops Master of villainy, where, oh! where art thou?
Odysseus Some way from thee I am keeping careful guard over the person of Odysseus.
Cyclops What, a new name! hast changed thine?
Odysseus Yes, Odysseus the name my father gave me. But thou wert doomed to pay for thy unholy feast; for I should have seen Troy burned to but sorry purpose, unless I had avenged on thee the slaughter of my comrades.
Cyclops Woe is me! ’tis an old oracle coming true; yes, it said I should have my eye put out by thee on thy way home from Troy; but it likewise foretold that thou wouldst surely pay for this, tossing on the sea for many a day.
Odysseus Go hang! E’en as I say, so have I done. And now will I get me to the beach and start my hollow ship across the sea of Sicily to the land of my fathers.
Cyclops Thou shalt not; I will break a boulder off this rock and crush thee, crew and all, beneath my throw. Blind though I be, I will climb the hill, mounting through yonder tunnel.
Chorus As for us, henceforth will we be the servants of Bacchus, sharing the voyage of this hero Odysseus.
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