The Lament Of The Old Nurse

A poem by Aeschylus (c. 525 – c. 456 Before Christ )

NURSE

Our mistress bids me with all speed to call

Aegisthus to the strangers, that he come

And hear more clearly, as a man from man,

This newly brought report. Before her slaves,

Under set eyes of melancholy cast,

She hid her inner chuckle at the events

That have been brought to pass–too well for her,

But for this house and hearth most miserably,–

As in the tale the strangers clearly told.

He, when he hears and learns the story’s gist,

Will joy, I trow, in heart. Ah, wretched me!

How those old troubles, of all sorts made up,

Most hard to bear, in Atreus’s palace-halls

Have made my heart full heavy in my breast!

But never have I known a woe like this.

For other ills I bore full patiently,

But as for dear Orestes, my sweet charge,

Whom from his mother I received and nursed . . .

And then the shrill cries rousing me o’ nights,

And many and unprofitable toils

For me who bore them. For one needs must rear

The heedless infant like an animal,

(How can it else be?) as his humor serve

For while a child is yet in swaddling clothes,

It speaketh not, if either hunger comes,

Or passing thirst, or lower calls of need;

And children’s stomach works its own content.

And I, though I foresaw this, call to mind,

How I was cheated, washing swaddling clothes,

And nurse and laundress did the selfsame work.

I then with these my double handicrafts,

Brought up Orestes for his father dear;

And now, woe’s me! I learn that he is dead,

And go to fetch the man that mars this house;

And gladly will he hear these words of mine.

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Poems in English 

• Шекспир – Уж если ты разлюбишь – Сонет 90 by William Shakespeare
• Шекспир – У сердца с глазом тайный договор – Сонет 47 by William Shakespeare
• Шекспир – У бедной музы красок больше нет – Сонет 103 by William Shakespeare
• Шекспир – Ты положи с моей любовью рядом – Сонет 117 by William Shakespeare
• Шекспир – Считать часы и спрашивать – Сонет 58 by William Shakespeare
• Шекспир – С любовью связан жизненный мой путь – Сонет 92 by William Shakespeare
• Шекспир – Разлука сердце делит пополам – Сонет 39 by William Shakespeare
• Шекспир – Проснись, любовь – Сонет 56 by William Shakespeare
• Шекспир – Про черный день – Сонет 63 by William Shakespeare
• Шекспир – Пример тебе подобной красоты – Сонет 84 by William Shakespeare
• Шекспир – Прекрасный облик в зеркале ты видишь – Сонет 3 by William Shakespeare
• Шекспир – По совести скажи – Сонет 10 by William Shakespeare
• Шекспир – Но не боюсь и смерть – Сонет 80 by William Shakespeare
• Шекспир – Неужто я, приняв любви венец – Сонет 114 by William Shakespeare
• Шекспир – Не позволяю помыслам ревнивым – Сонет 57 by William Shakespeare
• Шекспир – Мой глаз гравером стал – Сонет 24 by William Shakespeare
• Шекспир – Мои глаза в тебя не влюблены – Сонет 141 by William Shakespeare
• Шекспир – Мне показалось, что была зима – Сонет 97 by William Shakespeare
• Шекспир – Меня не радует твоя печаль – Сонет 34 by William Shakespeare
• Шекспир – Любовь – не кукла жалкая в руках – Сонет 116 by William Shakespeare

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