ELECTRA: Onward, O labouring tread,
As on move the years;
Onward amid thy tears,
O happier dead![ἨΛΈΚΤΡΑ: σύντειν᾽ — ὥρα — ποδὸς ὁρμάν: ὤ,
ἔμβα, ἔμβα κατακλαίουσα:
ἰώ μοί μοι.]Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Electra [Ἠλέκτρα], l. 112ff, Strophe 1 (c. 420 BC) [tr. Murray (1905)]
(Source)
Early introduction, mourning her situation as exiled child of the dead Agamemnon and her hated mother, Clytemnestra.
(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:Haste, for the time admits not of delay.
My gentle comrades hither haste
And shed, O shed the sympathetic tear.
Ah me!
[tr. Wodhull (1809)]Hasten your step, it is time; go onward, onward, weeping! Ah me!
[tr. Coleridge (1891)]Hasten on the course of my foot, O hour; O, go thou on, go on, weeping. Alas! for me, for me.
[tr. Buckley (1892)]Bestir thou, for time presses, thy foot's speed;
Haste onward, weeping bitterly.
I am his child, am Agamemnon's seed, --
Alas for me, for me!
[tr. Way (1896)]Come, girl, move! Move on to the beat of your rushing tears!
[tr. Theodoridis (2006)]You must step quickly now --
it’s time to move -- keep going,
lamenting as you go.
Alas for me! Yes, for me!
[tr. Johnston (2009)]Quicken the move of your foot with song
Walk on, walk on in tears.
Ah, my life.
[tr. @sentantiq (2020)]