Βάτραχοι (Χορός 1528-1533) [Le Rane, Coro 1528-1533 / Frogs, Chorus 1528-1533]
Aristofane / ἈριστοφάνηςEnglish Translation and Notes by Ian Johnston by ARISTOPHANES’... | |
Peace go with him and joy in his journeying ! Guide ye our poet Forth to the light, ye Powers that reign in the Earth and below it ; Send good thoughts with him, too, for the aid of a travailing nation. So shall we rest at the last, and forget our long desolation, War and the clashing of wrong. — And for Cleophon, why, if he'd rather, Let him fight all alone with his friends, in the far-off fields of his father. | First, all you spirits underneath the ground, let’s bid our poet here a fond farewell, as he goes upward to the light. To the city grant worthy thoughts of every excellence. Th en we could put an end to our great pain, the harmful clash of arms Let Cleophon(*) — and all those keen to fi ght — war on their enemy in their ancestral fi elds, on their own property |
here is that many of those advocating war were not putting their own
property in danger, unlike many Athenian farmers and landowners
whose lands were occupied by the enemy forces.