cxxvi
KADMUS
Dionysus,
Show mercy on us. We have wronged you.
DIONYSUS
You know me know; it is too late.
When there was a time, you knew me not.
AGAVE
We have confessed that.
But your hand
Falls on us too heavily.
DIONYSUS
A god insulted cannot forgive.
AGAVE
The gods should not be like men
In their revenge.
DIONYSUS
Zeus, my father, and the immutable
Laws of balance,
Have decreed this
From the beginnings of time.
Now, you must go.
AGAVE
Aah.
Father, the word is spoken: exile.
The gods are implacable.
DIONYSUS
Why then delay the inevitable?
KADMUS
Oh, daughter, what terrible end
Have we all reached, so suddenly.
You, unfortunate, and your sisters,
And myself.
An old man, unnecessary,
Trying to go on, in foreign lands.
I shall never find relief from suffering.
No, not even in death, flowing down Achairon,
The downward river, to the world of the dark,
Shall I ever know peace.
AGAVE
I shall have to go on living.
Oh, Father, exiled,
Separated from you!
KADMUS
Why throw your arms around my head,
Poor child,
Like a swan trying to protect
Her old and helpless?
AGAVE
Father, where am I to go, exiled
From my country?
Which way am I
To turn? The whole world is unnecessary.
Which way?
KADMUS
I don't know. Your old father
Is now of little help to you. I'm tired.
AGAVE
Farewell, my home.
Farewell, my only country.
For the last time I see
This house
Where, once, I came
A bride.
Oh, Father, I weep for you.
KADMUS
I still feel pity for you
And your sisters.
AGAVE
Because so horribly,
HORRIBLY
King Dionysus has punished you, you
And your house.
CHORUS
Because so horrible
You had offended him,
You, and your house,
And shamed his name
In Thebes.
AGAVE
Father, farewell.
KADMUS
This world is cruel irony.
Farewell, my daughter.
AGAVE
Woman, lead me to my sisters
To share their pitiful exile.
And may we find a distant land
Where accursed Cithaeron
Shall never see my face again,
Nor I,
Ever, set eyes again
On Cithaeron.
Take away this Thyrsus
Take away all that may remind me-
Take away memory.
Let that
Be the care
Of other Bacchae.
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