NURSE: We’re ruined, then, if we must add a new
Evil to the old one we’ve hardly saved ourselves from.[ΤΡΟΦΌΣ: Ἀπωλόμεσθ᾽ ἄρ᾽, εἰ κακὸν προσοίσομεν
νέον παλαιῷ, πρὶν τόδ᾽ ἐξηντληκέναι.]Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Medea [Μήδεια], l. 78ff (431 BC) [tr. Podlecki (1989)]
(Source)
Reacting to the news that King Creon is going to banish Medea and her sons, on top of the existing problem of Medea's broken marriage and fraying sanity. (Turns out, she's not wrong.)
(Source (Greek)). Other translations:We shall be plung'd
In utter ruin, if to our old woes
Yet unexhausted, any fresh we add.
[tr. Wodhull (1782)]Rain would follow, to the former ill
If this were added e'er the first subsides.
[tr. Potter (1814)]We are undone then if to the first ill,
Ere yet it be drained dry, we add a new.
[tr. Webster (1868)]Undone, it seems, are we, if to old woes fresh ones we add, ere we have drained the former to the dregs.
[tr. Coleridge (1891)]We perish then, if to the old we shall add a new ill, before the former be exhausted.
[tr. Buckley (1892)]We are undone then, if we add fresh ill
To old, ere lightened be our ship of this.
[tr. Way (Loeb) (1894)]But this is ruin! New waves breaking in
To wreck us, ere we are righted from the old!
[tr. Murray (1906)]It’s black indeed for us, when we add new to old
Sorrows before even the present sky has cleared.
[tr. Warner (1944)]Then we're lost, if we must add new trouble
To old, before we're rid of what we had already.
[tr. Vellacott (1963)]We are done for, it seems, if we add this new trouble to our old ones before we've weathered those.
[tr. Kovacs (1994)]That’s scuppered us, then, if a new wave is going to crash over us before we’ve managed to bale out the old one!
[tr. Davie (1996)]Well then, we are finished, old man!
We are destroyed! New troubles arrive even before the old ones have gone!
[tr. Theodoridis (2004)]It’s all over for us, if we take on new troubles
on top of the old, before they have been drained out.
[tr. Luschnig (2007)]If we must add these brand-new troubles
to our old ones, before we’ve dealt with them,
then we’re finished.
[tr. Johnston (2008)]Then we are lost, if we must add this new evil
before we've drained the old one to the dregs.
[tr. Ewans (2022)]That's it, we're doomed. New troubles are poured in our cup
Faster than we can drink the old ones to the dregs.
[tr. Hill (2025)]Then we are ruined, if we add new trouble [kakon] to old, before we have bailed out the latter.
[tr. Coleridge / Ceragioli / Nagy / Hour25]
Quotations about:
worsening
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
Last year we said, “Things can’t go on like this,” and they didn’t, they got worse.
Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
Column (1930-01-11)
(Source)
Collected in Sanity Is Where You Find It, ch. 8 (1955) [ed. Donald Day].
Things are not getting worse; things have always been this bad. Nothing is more consoling than the long perspective of history. It will perk you up no end to go back and read the works of progressives past. You will learn therein that things back then were also terrible, and what’s more, they were always getting worse. This is most inspiriting.
Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
The Progressive (Mar 1986)
(Source)
LILY: I worry no matter how cynical you become,
it’s never enough to keep up.Jane Wagner (b. 1935) American humorist, writer, director
The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, Part 1 (1985) [perf. Lily Tomlin]
(Source)
Variant: "No matter how cynical you get, it is impossible to keep up."
