Classic Poem

Elektra's Keening

All that is left me
my hope was Orestes
dust is returned me
in my hands nothing, dust that is all of him,
flower that went forth

would I had died then
ere stealing thee from the slaughter
died both together
lain with our father

Far from thy homeland
died far in exile
no hand was near thee
to soothe thy passing,
corpse unanointed
fire consumed thee,
all now is nothing,
strangers have brought thee
small in this urn here

Sorrow upon me
fruitless my caring

I as mother and sister both
thy nurse also ere thou hadst thy growth
this was my past
and swept away with thee
ever to me
thy summons came.

all in a day
and is no more.
Dead Agamemnon, dead now my brother
I am dead also, the great wind in passing
bears us together.
Mirth for our foemen.

[ anger now stronger than grief, for a moment: SPOKEN ]

And that bitch of a mother is laughing
and they haven't sent back even the shape of him,
but a ghost that cant do its job.
Ajnn. ajhn.

[ SINGS ]

thou the avenger, no more avenging
born to misfortune, ashes avail not
shadows avail not

ahi, ahi,
bodiless
brother that art not.

[ SPOKEN ]

The spirits love me no longer.
you kept sending messages
secretly, you would take vengeance.

[ SINGS ]

thy death, my dying
dred road thou goest
brother, my slayer
as ever above earth
let death divide not

[singing to the urn]

Oimoi Oimoi

take me in with you
I now am nothing, make place beside thee
naught into naught, zero to zero
to enter beside thee
our fortune equal
death endeth pain.