Aristophanes - Lysistrata (Section 2) lyrics

LAMPITO But who's garred this Council o' Women to meet here? LYSISTRATA I have. LAMPITO Propound then what you want o' us. MYRRHINE What is the amazing news you have to tell? LYSISTRATA I'll tell you, but first answer one small question. MYRRHINE As you like. LYSISTRATA Are you not sad your children's fathers Go endlessly off soldiering afar In this plodding war? I am willing to wager There's not one here whose husband is at home. CALONICE Mine's been in Thrace, keeping an eye on Eucrates For five months past. MYRRHINE And mine left me for Pylos Seven months ago at least. LAMPITO And as for mine No sooner has he slipped out frae the line He straps his shield and he's snickt off again. LYSISTRATA And not the slightest glitter of a lover! And since the Milesians betrayed us, I've not seen The image of a single upright man To be a marble consolation to us. Now will you help me, if I find a means To stamp the war out. MYRRHINE By the two Goddesses, Yes! I will though I've to pawn this very dress And drink the barter-money the same day. CALONICE And I too though I'm split up like a turbot And half is hackt off as the price of peace. LAMPITO And I too! Why, to get a peep at the shy thing I'd clamber up to the tip-top o' Taygetus. LYSISTRATA Then I'll expose my mighty mystery. O women, if we would compel the men To bow to Peace, we must refrain-- MYRRHINE From what? O tell us! LYSISTRATA Will you truly do it then? MYRRHINE We will, we will, if we must die for it. LYSISTRATA We must refrain from every depth of love.... Why do you turn your backs? Where are you going? Why do you bite your lips and shake your heads? Why are your faces blanched? Why do you weep? Will you or won't you, or what do you mean? MYRRHINE No, I won't do it. Let the war proceed. CALONICE No, I won't do it. Let the war proceed. LYSISTRATA You too, dear turbot, you that said just now You didn't mind being split right up in the least? CALONICE Anything else? O bid me walk in fire But do not rob us of that darling joy. What else is like it, dearest Lysistrata? LYSISTRATA And you? MYRRHINE O please give me the fire instead. LYSISTRATA Lewd to the least drop in the tiniest vein, Our s** is fitly food for Tragic Poets, Our whole life's but a pile of kisses and babies. But, hardy Spartan, if you join with me All may be righted yet. O help me, help me. LAMPITO It's a sair, sair thing to ask of us, by the Twa, A la** to sleep her lane and never fill Love's lack except wi' makeshifts.... But let it be. Peace maun be thought of first. LYSISTRATA My friend, my friend! The only one amid this herd of weaklings. CALONICE But if--which heaven forbid--we should refrain As you would have us, how is Peace induced? LYSISTRATA By the two Goddesses, now can't you see All we have to do is idly sit indoors With smooth roses powdered on our cheeks, Our bodies burning naked through the folds Of shining Amorgos' silk, and meet the men With our dear Venus-plats plucked trim and neat. Their stirring love will rise up furiously, They'll beg our arms to open. That's our time! We'll disregard their knocking, beat them off-- And they will soon be rabid for a Peace. I'm sure of it. LAMPITO Menelaus, they say, Seeing the bosom of his naked Helen Flang down the sword. CALONICE we'll be tearful fools If our husbands take us at our word and leave us. LYSISTRATA There's only left then, in Pherecrates' phrase, To flay a skinned dog--flay more our flayed desires. CALONICE Bah, proverbs will never warm a celibate. But what avail will your scheme be if the men Drag us for all our kicking on to the couch? LYSISTRATA Cling to the doorposts. CALONICE if they should force us? LYSISTRATA Yield then, but with a sluggish, cold indifference. There is no joy to them in sullen mating. Besides we have other ways to madden them; They cannot stand up long, and they've no delight Unless we fit their aim with merry succour. CALONICE Well if you must have it so, we'll all agree. LAMPITO For us I ha' no doubt. We can persuade Our men to strike a fair an' decent Peace, But how will ye pitch out the battle-frenzy O' the Athenian populace? LYSISTRATA I promise you We'll wither up that curse. LAMPITO I don't believe it. Not while they own ane trireme oared an' rigged, Or a' those stacks an' stacks an' stacks O' siller. LYSISTRATA I've thought the whole thing out till there's no flaw. We shall surprise the Acropolis today: That is the duty set the older dames. While we sit here talking, they are to go And under pretence of sacrificing, seize it. LAMPITO Certie, that's fine; all's working for the best. LYSISTRATA Now quickly, Lampito, let us tie ourselves To this high purpose as tightly as the hemp of words Can knot together. LAMPITO Set out the terms in detail And we'll a' swear to them. LYSISTRATA Of course.... Well then Where is our Scythianess? Why are you staring? First lay the shield, boss downward, on the floor And bring the victim's inwards. CAILONICE But, Lysistrata, What is this oath that we're to swear? LYSISTRATA What oath! In Aeschylus they take a slaughtered sheep And swear upon a buckler. Why not we? CALONICE O Lysistrata, Peace sworn on a buckler! LYSISTRATA What oath would suit us then? CALONICE Something burden bearing Would be our best insignia.... A white horse! Let's swear upon its entrails. LYSISTRATA A horse indeed! CALONICE Then what will symbolise us? LYSISTRATA This, as I tell you-- First set a great dark bowl upon the ground And disembowel a skin of Thasian wine, Then swear that we'll not add a drop of water. LAMPITO Ah, what aith could clink pleasanter than that! LYSISTRATA Bring me a bowl then and a skin of wine. CALONICE My dears, see what a splendid bowl it is; I'd not say No if asked to sip it off. LYSISTRATA Put down the bowl. Lay hands, all, on the victim. Skiey Queen who givest the last word in arguments, And thee, O Bowl, dear comrade, we beseech: Accept our oblation and be propitious to us. CALONICE What healthy blood, la, how it gushes out! LAMPITO An' what a leesome fragrance through the air. LYSISTRATA Now, dears, if you will let me, I'll speak first. CALONICE Only if you draw the lot, by Aphrodite LYSISTRATA SO, grasp the brim, you, Lampito, and all. You, Calonice, repeat for the rest Each word I say. Then you must all take oath And pledge your arms to the same stern conditions-- LYSISTRATA To husband or lover I'll not open arms CALONICE To husband or lover I'll not open arms LYSISTRATA Though love and denial may enlarge his charms. CALONICE Though love and denial may enlarge his charms. O, O, my knees are failing me, Lysistrata! LYSISTRATA But still at home, ignoring him, I'll stay, CALONICE But still at home, ignoring him, I'll stay, LYSISTRATA Beautiful, clad in saffron silks all day CALONICE Beautiful, clad in saffron silks all day. LYSISTRATA If then he seizes me by dint of force, CALONICE If then he seizes me by dint of force, LYSISTRATA I'll give him reason for a long remorse. CALONICE I'll give him reason for a long remorse. LYSISTRATA I'll never lie and stare up at the ceiling, CALONICE I'll never lie and stare up at the ceiling, LYSISTRATA Nor like a lion on all fours go kneeling. CALONICE Nor like a lion on all fours go kneeling. LYSISTRATA If I keep faith, then bounteous cups be mine. CALONICE If I keep faith, then bounteous cups be mine. LYSISTRATA If not, to nauseous water change this wine. CALONICE If not, to nauseous water change this wine. LYSISTRATA Do you all swear to this? MYRRHINE We do, we do. LYSISTRATA Then I shall immolate the victim thus. She drinks. CALONICE Here now, share fair, haven't we made a pact? Let's all quaff down that friendship in our turn. LAMPITO Hark, what caterwauling hubbub's that? LYSISTRATA As I told you, The women have appropriated the citadel. So, Lampito, dash off to your own land And raise the rebels there. These will serve as hostages, While we ourselves take our places in the ranks And drive the bolts right home. CALONICE But won't the men March straight against us? LYSISTRATA And what if they do? No threat shall creak our hinges wide, no torch Shall light a fear in us; we will come out To Peace alone. CALONICE That's it, by Aphrodite! As of old let us seem hard and obdurate. LAMPITO and some go off; the others go up into the Acropolis. Chorus of OLD MEN enter to attack the captured Acropolis. Make room, Draces, move ahead; why your shoulder's chafed, I see, With lugging uphill these lopped branches of the olive-tree. How upside-down and wrong-way-round a long life sees things grow. Ah, Strymodorus, who'd have thought affairs could tangle so? The women whom at home we fed, Like witless fools, with fostering bread, Have impiously come to this-- They've stolen the Acropolis, With bolts and bars our orders flout And shut us out. Come, Philurgus, bustle thither; lay our f*ggots on the ground, In neat stacks beleaguering the insurgents all around; And the vile conspiratresses, plotters of such mischief dire, Pile and burn them all together in one vast and righteous pyre: Fling with our own hands Lycon's wife to fry in the thickest fire. By Demeter, they'll get no brag while I've a vein to beat! Cleomenes himself was hurtled out in sore defeat. His stiff-backed Spartan pride was bent. Out, stripped of all his arms, he went: A pigmy cloak that would not stretch To hide his rump (the draggled wretch), Six sprouting years of beard, the spilth Of six years' filth. That was a siege! Our men were ranged in lines of seventeen deep Before the gates, and never left their posts there, even to sleep. Shall I not smite the rash presumption then of foes like these, Detested both of all the gods and of Euripides-- Else, may the Marathon-plain not boast my trophied victories! Ah, now, there's but a little space To reach the place! A deadly climb it is, a tricky road With all this bumping load: A pack-a** soon would tire.... How these logs bruise my shoulders! further still Jog up the hill, And puff the fire inside, Or just as we reach the top we'll find it's died. Ough, phew! I choke with the smoke. Lord Heracles, how acrid-hot Out of the pot This mad-dog smoke leaps, worrying me And biting angrily.... 'Tis Lemnian fire that smokes, Or else it would not sting my eyelids thus.... Haste, all of us; Athene invokes our aid. Laches, now or never the a**ault must be made! Ough, phew! I choke with the smoke. .. Thanked be the gods! The fire peeps up and crackles as it should. Now why not first slide off our backs these weary loads of wood And dip a vine-branch in the brazier till it glows, then straight Hurl it at the battering-ram against the stubborn gate? If they refuse to draw the bolts in immediate compliance, We'll set fire to the wood, and smoke will strangle their defiance. Phew, what a spluttering drench of smoke! Come, now from off my back.... Is there no Samos-general to help me to unpack? Ah there, that's over! For the last time now it's galled my shoulder. Flare up thine embers, brazier, and dutifully smoulder, To kindle a brand, that I the first may strike the citadel. Aid me, Lady Victory, that a triumph-trophy may tell How we did anciently this insane audacity quell! Chorus of WOMEN. What's that rising yonder? That ruddy glare, that smoky skurry? O is it something in a blaze? Quick, quick, my comrades, hurry! Nicodice, helter-skelter! Or poor Calyce's in flames And Cratylla's stifled in the welter. O these dreadful old men And their darklaws of hate! There, I'm all of a tremble lest I turn out to be too late. I could scarcely get near to the spring though I rose before dawn, What with tattling of tongues and rattling of pitchers in one jostling din With slaves pushing in!.... Still here at last the water's drawn And with it eagerly I run To help those of my friends who stand In danger of being burned alive. For I am told a dribbling band Of greybeards hobble to the field, Great f*ggots in each palsied hand, As if a hot bath to prepare, And threatening that out they'll drive These wicked women or soon leave them charring into ashes there. O Goddess, suffer not, I pray, this harsh deed to be done, But show us Greece and Athens with their warlike acts repealed! For this alone, in this thy hold, Thou Goddess with the helm of gold, We laid hands on thy sanctuary, Athene.... Then our ally be And where they cast their fires of slaughter Direct our water!