CASSANDRA:
No ... the house that hates god,
an echoing womb of guilt, kinsmen torturing kinsmen,
severed heads,
slaughterhouse of heroes, soil streaming blood -
Leader:
A keen hound, this stranger.
Trailing murder, and murder she will find.
CASSANDRA:
See, my witnesses -
I trust to them, to the babies
wailing, skewered on the sword,
their flesh charred, the father gorging on their parts -
Leader:
We'd heard your fame as a seer,
but no one looks for seers in Argos.
CASSANDRA:
Oh no, what horror, what new plot,
new agony this? -
it's growing, ma**ing, deep in the house,
a plot, a monstrous - thing
to crush the loved ones, no,
there is no cure, and rescue's far away and -
Leader: I can't read these signs; I knew the first,
the city rings with them.
CASSANDRA:
You, you godforsaken - you'd do this
The lord of your bed,
you bathe him... his body glistens, then -
how to tell the climax? -
comes so quickly, see,
hand over hand shoots out, hauling ropes -
then lunge!
Leader: Still lost. Her riddles, her dark words of god -
I'm groping, helpless.
CASSANDRA:
No no, look there! -
what's that? some net flung out of hell -
No, she is the snare,
the bedmate, d**hmate, murder's strong right arm!
Let the insatiate discord in the race
rear up and shriek 'Avenge the victim - stone them dead!'
Leader:
What Fury is this? Why rouse it, lift its wailing
through the house? I hear you and lose hope.
Chorus:
Drop by drop at the heart, the gold of life ebbs out.
We are the old soldiers... wounds will come
with the crushing sunset of our lives.
d**h is close, and quick.
CASSANDRA:
Lookout! - look out!
Ai, drag the great bull from the mate! -
a thrash of robes, she traps him -writhing -
she gores him through !
And now he buckles, look, the bath swirls red
There's stealth and murder in the cauldron, do you hear?
Leader:
I'm no judge, I've little sk** with the oracles,
but even I know danger when I hear it
Chorus:
What good are the oracles to men? Words, more words,
and the hurt comes on us, endless words
and a seer's techniques have brought us
terror and the truth.
CASSANDRA:
The agony - O I am breaking! - Fate's so hard,
and the pain that floods my voice is mine alone.
Why have you brought me here, tormented as I am?
Why, unless to die with him, why else?