Diane Rayor, Grand Valley State University
In this bilingual reading, I will highlight the plays of words and sounds in the English that attempt to mimic the Greek in non-choral sung passages of Euripides’ Hecuba. I emphasize the techniques that work for performance: accuracy and clarity, sound, alliteration, repetition of words in various grammatical forms, and rehearsals with actors. While I do not follow a set metrical pattern, I craft the lyric voice with this flexible method. The reading in Greek and English, with some remarks, will fit in 15 minutes. Sample:
Hecuba
154. How unhappy I am! What can I possibly say?
155. What cry, what lament?
156. Misery of miserable old age
157. and slavery impossible to endure,
158. impossible to bear. Oimoi, moi!
159. Who protects me? What people,
160. what place? Old Priam perished,
161. my babies perished.
162. Should I go this way or that?
163. Where will I be safe?
164. Where is some divine power or helpful god?
165. Trojan women, you bring terrible news,
166. terrible calamities,
167. you destroy, destroy me!
168. Life under the sun no longer gives delight.
169. Enduring feet, take me,
170. take this old woman to my tent. Hecuba approaches skênê
171. Oh my baby,
172. child of the most unfortunate mother,
173. come out, come out of the tent.
174. Hear the words of your mother.
175. [deleted line] my baby, so you may know what]
176. [deleted line] news I hear concerning your life.]
Polyxena enters from skênê.
Polyxena 197. Oh my terribly suffering mother,
198. enduring too much from an ill-fated life!
199. What sort of dishonor, most hateful
200. and horrible outrage, has some divinity
201. yet again stirred up against you—oimoi!
202. Your girl will no longer join you
203. in slavery, my misery
204. no longer with yours in old age.
205. No, in misery you will see miserable me,
206. your cub snatched from your hands
207. like a mountain-bred lamb,
208. my throat slit, and driven to Hades
209. below the darkness of earth
210. where I, heartsick, will lie among the dead.
211. Mother, I cry a grief-stricken lament
212. for your misfortune.
213. I don’t cry aloud for the dishonor and outrage
214. against my life. I know it’s too late.
215. Death grants me a better fate.