1690 Has he given me my own dear children?
Has he?
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KREON I have. I brought them to you
because I knew how much joy
as always, you would take in them.
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OEDIPUS Bless this kindness of yours. Bless your luck.
May the gods guard you better than they did me.
Children, where are you? Come to me.
These are your brother's hands, hands
of the man who created you, hands that changed
1700 my once bright eyes to these black sockets.
He, children, saw nothing, knew nothing,
he fathered you in his own place of life,
where his own seed grew. I can still weep
for you, though I can't see you.
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(Oedipus takes his daughters in his arms.)
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I imagine how bitter your lives will be.
I know how men will force you to live.
What great occasions could you join, what festivals,
without being sent home in tears,
forbidden any share in the holy joy?
1710 When it's time for your marriage, my daughters,
what man would risk all the revulsion,
the gods' hatred for me that will wound you,
just as that hatred destroyed my parents?
Do we lack any evil? Your father killed
his father, he started lives where his began,
he took you from the place he was sown,
the place he was born.
Those are the insults
you will face. Who will marry you?
1720 No man, my children. You will grow old
unmarried, living a dried-up childless life.
Kreon, you are the only father they have left,
for the parents who conceived them are both lost.
Keep them from rootless wandering,
unmarried and helpless. They are your kin.
Don't bring them down to what I am.
Pity them. They are so young, and but for you,
alone. Touch my hand, kind man,
make that touch your promise.
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