Chorus Hush, hush! let your footsteps fall lightly! not a sound!
Electra Go further from his couch, further, I beseech you!
Chorus There, I obey.
Electra Ah, ah! Speak like the breath of a slender reed-pipe, my dear, I pray.
Chorus See, how soft and low I drop my voice.
Electra Yes, do so; approach now, softly, softly! Give me an account of why you have come here. For at last he has lain down, and sleeps.
Chorus How is he? You give us an account, my dear; what has happened, what misfortune?
Electra He is still breathing, but his moans grow feeble.
Chorus What are you saying? Unhappy Orestes!
Electra You will kill him, if you disturb him from the sweet sleep he now enjoys.
Chorus Poor sufferer, for his hateful deeds, inspired by a god!
Electra Ah, misery! Injustice it was, after all, from an unjust mouth, when Loxias on the tripod of Themis decreed my mother’s most unnatural murder.
Chorus Do you see? He stirs beneath his robe!
Electra Alas! Your noisy chatter has roused him from his sleep.
Chorus No, I think he is asleep.
Electra Leave us, go away from the house! circle back again! cease this noise!
Chorus He is asleep.
Electra You are right. O Lady Night, giver of sleep to hard-working mortals, come from Erebus, come, wing your way to the palace of Agamemnon. For with misery and woe we are lost, we are gone. There! that noise again! Do be still and keep the sound of your voice away from his couch; let him enjoy his sleep in peace, my dear!
Chorus Tell me, what end of troubles awaits him.
Electra Death, death; what else? For he has no desire for food.
Chorus Then his destiny is already clear.
Electra Phoebus offered us up for sacrifice, when he ordered the pitiable, unnatural murder of our mother, who killed our father.
Chorus It was just.
Electra But it was not well done. You killed and were killed, my mother! and you have slain a father and your own children; for we are dead or as good as dead. You are in your grave, and the greater part of my life is spent in weeping and wailing, and tears at night; unmarried, childless, I drag out forever a joyless existence.
Chorus Leader
Electra, you are nearby; see whether your brother has not died without your knowing it; for I do not like his utter prostration.
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