All Asia mourns, O King, with thee,
And bends the feeble knee.
[Here commences, with mournful Oriental music, and with violent gesticulations, a great National Wail over the misfortunes of the Persian people.
STROPHE I.
Xerxes.
I am the man! I am the man!
The father of shame! the fount of disgrace!
Weep me! weep me! once a king,
Now to my country an evil thing,
A curse to my race!
Chorus.