Tharsein

[ΒΑΤΤΟΣ. ΚΟΡΥΔΩΝ.]

ΒΑ.       Ὦ χαρίεσσ’ Ἀμαρυλλί, μόνας σέθεν οὐδὲ θανοίσας
λασεύμεσθ’· ὅσον αἶγες ἐμὶν φίλαι, ὅσσον ἀπέσβης.
αἰαῖ τῶ σκληρῶ μάλα δαίμονος ὅς με λελόγχει.
ΚΟ.      θαρσεῖν χρή, φίλε Βάττε· τάχ’ αὔριον ἔσσετ’ ἄμεινον.
ἐλπίδες ἐν ζωοῖσιν, ἀνέλπιστοι δὲ θανόντες,
χὠ Ζεὺς ἄλλοκα μὲν πέλει αἴθριος, ἄλλοκα δ’ ὕει.
(Theocritus, Id. 4.38-43)

[BATTUS. CORYDON.]

BA. Ah, lovely Amaryllis, we shan’t forget you, dead though you are, and there’s not another girl I’d say that of. Dear to me as my goats you were when you were taken. It’s a cruel power indeed that rules my destiny.

CO. My dear Battus, you mustn’t be so downhearted. Things may be better to-morrow. While there’s life there’s hope, and only the dead have none. Clear sky one day, rain the next, as Zeus wills it.

(tr. Andrew Sydenham Farrar Gow)