A monologue in the play by Euripides
NOTICE: This monologue is published from The Plays of Euripides in English, vol. 2. Trans. Shelley Dean Milman. London: J. M. Reduction & Sons, 1922.
ION: Things far away wear different semblance
Because when about them we correct a closer view.
I undoubtedly with appreciation embrace
My better performance, having seen in you
A father. Although whence rose my troubled thoughts
Now hear: in Athens, I actually am informed, a local
Is considered a glorious term, not so the race
Of aliens. I actually its gates shall enter in laden
With these two evils, by a foreign sire
Descended, and myself a spurious kid.
Branded with this reproach, doomed to carry on
In bottom obscurity, I shall be referred to as
A man of no bank account: but if intruding
Into the maximum stations in the city
My spouse and i aim at staying great, We shall bear
Hate in the vulgar, pertaining to superior electrical power
Is to the folks odious, however the friends
Of virtue, that they whose enhanced souls
With real perception are endued, observe
A modest peace and quiet, nor with eager rush
Rush into public organization, such as these
Is going to laugh and brand me with an idiot\s brand
For not staying quiet in a land
Which will with turbulent outrages abounds.
Again, can those of a distinguished rank
Who at the helm preside, when I look at
To raise me personally to honour, be most wary
Just how on an unfamiliar they all their votes consult
For thus, my maest?, \tis ever before wont to become
They who also possess specialist and rank
Loathe their particular competitors. But when I come
Unwelcome unfamiliar person, to a foreign house
And the childless matronpartner when
In your calamity, of all her hopes
Right now reftwith bitter anguish will she think
In exclusive this misfortune: by what means
Can I escape her hatred, at your footstool
When I are seated, but she, still remaining
A childless consort, with malignant eye
The object of the tenderness beholds?
Then or perhaps, betraying myself, will you view
Your wife: or by th\ esteem for me exprest
A dire misunderstandings in your structure cause.
For men, by girl subtlety, just how oft
Have poisons been invented to ruin
Yet is usually my shame to your consort due
Childless and speeding to the bono of years
Sprung via heroic prestige she sick deserves
To pine through want of issue. Nevertheless the face
Of empire to whom we foolishly commend
Is definitely fair without a doubt, though in her upper end Grief
Hath fixed her loathed house. For who will be happy
Who have fortunate, when ever his expereince of living is spent
In circumspection and in stressed fears?
Rather would My spouse and i in an grossier state
Live blest, than be a monarch who wonders
In bad friends, and hates the excellent, still fearing
The cerebrovascular accident of loss of life. Perhaps you can reply
That gold can easily all these road blocks surmount
Also to grow wealthy is nice. I would certainly not hear
Tumultuous sounds, or grievous toils endure
Mainly because these hands my pieces still preserve.
May We possess an humbler rank exempt
Coming from sorrow! Um my maest?, let me illustrate
The benefits I have right here enjoyed, first ease
To man many grateful, by the busy masses
I hardly ever was molested, from my personal path
Zero villain drove me: never to be endured
Is this, whenever we to basic competitors
Are forced to produce pre-eminence. We prayed
Fervently to the gods, or ministered
To men, and with those who did rejoice
My spouse and i never grieved. Some strangers I ignored
But others came. Consequently a new thing still
Did I stay, and each new votary you should.
What men are sure to wish for, actually they
Who with reluctance practise the actual ought
The laws conspired to aid my own natural curved
And in the sight of Phoebus made me just.
These matters maturely analyzing in my breast
I deem my condition here exceeds
What Athens can bestow. Allow me in that case
The advantage of living to me:
For \tis an equal blessing, or to preference
The splendid items of good fortune with joy
Or in an humbler place rest content.
