Part 13 (1/2)

[_A new thought comes to_ HECUBA; _she kneels and beats the earth with her hands_.

HECUBA.

[_Strophe_.

O Earth, Earth of my children; hearken! and O mine own, Ye have hearts and forget not, ye in the darkness lying!

LEADER.

Now hast thou found thy prayer[48], crying to them that are gone.

HECUBA.

Surely my knees are weary, but I kneel above your head; Hearken, O ye so silent! My hands beat your bed!

LEADER.

I, I am near thee; I kneel to thy dead to hear thee, Kneel to mine own in the darkness; O husband, hear my crying!

HECUBA.

Even as the beasts they drive, even as the loads they bear,

LEADER.

(Pain; O pain!)

HECUBA.

We go to the house of bondage. Hear, ye dead, O hear!

LEADER.

(Go, and come not again!)

HECUBA.

Priam, mine own Priam, Lying so lowly, Thou in thy nothingness, Shelterless, comfortless, See'st thou the thing I am?

Know'st thou my bitter stress?

LEADER.

Nay, thou art naught to him!

Out of the strife there came, Out of the noise and shame, Making his eyelids dim, Death, the Most Holy!

[_The fire and smoke rise constantly higher_.

HECUBA.

[_Antistrophe_.