O misery! misery, dark and deep!
Dole and sorrow and woe!
Weep, ye Persians! wail and weep,
For wounds that freshly flow!
Messenger.
All, all is ruined: not a remnant left.
Myself, against all hope, see Persia’s sun.
ANTISTROPHE I.
Chorus.
O long, too long, through creeping years
Hath the life of the old man lasted,