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1445I will not disobey your words.
Neoptolemus
And I will also grant assent.
Heracles
Do not delay your action long;
occasion is calling,
and the wind at your stern is urging you on.
Heracles withdraws.
Philoctetes
1450 Now as I leave I will call on my island.
Farewell to the chamber that shared in my vigil,
and the nymphs of the meadows, nymphs of the streams,
and the masculine roar of the sea-swept coast.
Often my head has been damp with the blowing
1455of southerly winds, though deep in my cave;
and often the distant mountain of Hermes
has heard my voice and answered to me
with echoing groans in my tempest of sorrow.
But O my streams and my Lycian spring,
1460I am leaving you now, I am leaving at last,
though I had thought I would never depart.
O land of sea-circled Lemnos, farewell!
Do not begrudge me a fair voyage now
to whatever place great Destiny calls,
1465and my friends' advice, and the almighty god
who has brought these things to fulfillment.
chorus
Come let us go now all together,
1470and pray to the nymphs of the sea
to grant us a prosperous voyage.
The women of Trachis and Philoctetes. A new translation in verse by Robert Torrance. Houghton Mifflin. 1966.
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