Stasimon 4
Chorus
But thou to sorrow settest no limit.
890
Chorus
’Tis hard to bear, but still—
Chorus
Thou art not the first to lose—
Chorus
A wife; misfortune takes a different shape for every man she plagues.
[Choral]
O the weary sorrow! O the grief for dear ones dead and gone! Why didst thou hinder me from plung-ing into the gaping grave, there to lay me down and die with her, my peerless bride?
895
Admetus
Then would Hades for that one have gotten these two faithful souls at once, crossing the nether lake together.
900
[Choral 2]
I had a kinsman once, within whose home died
Chorus
his only son, worthy of a father’s tears; yet in spite of that he bore his grief resignedly, childless though he was, his hair already turning grey, himself far on in years, upon
905
life’s downward track.
910
[Choral]
O house of mine, how can I enter thee? how can I live here, now that fortune turns against me? Ah me! How wide the gulf ’twixt then and now!
Admetus
Then with torches cut from Pelion’s pines, with marriage hymns I entered in, holding my dear wife’s hand; and at our back a crowd of friends with cheerful cries, singing the happy lot of my dead wife and me,
915
calling us a noble pair made one, children both of highborn lineage; but now the voice of woe instead of wedding hymns, and robes of black instead of snowy white usher me
920
into my house to my deserted couch.
925
[Choral 2]
Hard upon prosperous fortune came this sorrow to thee, a stranger to adversity; yet hast thou saved thy soul alive.
Chorus
Thy wife is dead and gone; her love she leaves with thee. What new thing is here? Death ere now from many a man hath torn a wife.
930
Admetus
My friends, I count my dead wife’s lot more blest than mine, for all it seems not so; for nevermore can sorrow touch her for ever; all her toil is over, and glorious is her fame. While I, who had no right to live, have passed the bounds of fate
935
