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To live a life half dead, a living death,

And buried; but O, yet more miserable!

Myself my sepulchre, a moving grave;

Buried, yet not exempt,

By privilege of death and burial,

From worst of other evils, pains and wrongs;
But made hereby obnoxious more

To all the miseries of life,

Life in captivity

Among inhuman foes.

But who are these? for with joint pace I hear

The tread of many feet steering this way;
Perhaps my enemies, who come to stare
At my affliction, and perhaps to insult,

Their daily practice to afflict me more.

CHORUS.

This, this is he; softly a while,

Let us not. break in upon him.

O change beyond report, thoughts or belief!

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κάτι κάκιον, θήκην παρέχων

αὐτὸς ἐμαυτῷ σωματοειδῆ,

βίον ἐκτρίβων ἀβίωτον

τῶν δὲ θανόντων, οἷά τε νεκρός, γέρας οὐκ ἔλαβον, τῶν πικροτάτης

λύμης ἄτης τε λυθέντων

ὅν γ ̓ ἔτι μᾶλλον τῶν πρὶν κατέχει πάντα τὰ θνητοῖς ἀλγεινότατα,

στεῤῥαί τε πέδαι,

παρά τ ̓ ἐχθροῖς θυμὸν ἀθέλκτοις.

â, â, ča, ča,

τίνων τοῦτο κοίνῳ πελάζει βαδισμῷ

τὸ πλῆθος, ὡς κλύοντά γ ̓ ἔστ' ἐπεικάσαι; ἆρ ̓ ἐχθρῶν στόλος ἀκμήτων, σκοπουμένων με, καὶ γέλωτος οἵνεκα,

τὸ σφὶν ξύνηθες, τῶνδ ̓ ἐπ ̓ αὐξήσει κακῶν;

ΧΟΡΟΣ.

ὅδ ̓ ἔσθ ̓ ἁνήρ· ἴχνος δὲ λεπτὸν τιθῶμεν, ἧκα προσμολόντες·

φεῦ τᾶς παρ ̓ ἐλπίδα φθορᾶς ἀπείρου

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See how he lies at random, carelessly diffused,

With languished head unpropt,

As one past hope, abandoned,

And by himself given over,

In slavish habit, ill-fitted weeds

O'erworn and soiled.

Or do my eyes misrepresent? Can this be he?

That heroic, that renowned,

Irresistible Samson, whom unarmed

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No strength of man, or fiercest wild beast could withstand;

Who tore the lion, as the lion tears the kid;

Ran on embattled armies clad in iron,

And, weaponless himself,

Made arms ridiculous, useless the forgery

Of brazen shield and spear, the hammered cuirass,

Chalybean tempered steel, and frock of mail

Adamantean proof;

But safest he who stood aloof,

When insupportably his foot advanced,

130

130

ὁρᾶτε δ ̓ εἰκὴ χύδην κείμενον,

κάρα τε νεῦον ἀμένη

νον, ἄφιλον ἄλλως δυσέλ

πιδ ̓ αὐτόγνωτον ὄντ ̓·

ἀεικεῖ δουλίᾳ

στολᾷ τ ̓ ἀλλοτρίᾳ δυσείδης

ἐμοῖς γοῦν ὄμμασιν πέφανται·

ὅδ ̓ οὖν ὁ Σάμψων, ὁ δὴ παγκρατὴς, ἀντίτιμος ἡρώων,

ὅς θ ̓ ὑπερέσχ ̓ ἄοπλος

ἀνδρῶν τῶν ὑπεράλλων

θηρῶν τ ̓ ἀγριοθύμων,

ὃς λέοντ ̓ ἔκαν ̓, ὡς λέων ἁβρὸν ἔκτανε μόσχον·

στρατῶν γυμνὸς σιδηροχαρμῶν

ἄμαχος ἐπέσσυτο στίχοισι,

ἔθετο παρ ̓ οὐδὲν ὅπλα χαλκότευκτα,

θώρηκα, ῥαιστῆρος ἔργον, σάκη,

χαλυβδίκ ̓ ἐγχέων στόματ ̓,

ἀδαμαντίνοις θ ̓ ἅμμασι

χιτώνας συμπαγείς.

ἀπελθὼν δ ̓ ἀσφαλὴς,

τοῦδ ̓ ἐλαδὸν ἐχθρὰ δυσπαλαίστου

140

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In scorn of their proud arms and warlike tools,

Spurned them to death by troops. The bold Ascalonite Fled from his lion ramp-old warriors turned

Their plated backs under his heel,

Or grovelling soiled their crested helmets in the dust.

Then with what trivial weapon came to hand,

The jaw of a dead ass, his sword of bone,

A thousand foreskins fell, the flower of Palestine,

In Ramath-lechi, famous to this day.

140

Then by main force pulled up, and on his shoulders bore,

The gates of Azza, post and massy bar,

Up to the hill by Hebron, seat of giants old,

No journey of a sabbath-day, and loaded so;

Like whom the Gentiles feign to bear up heaven.

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Which shall I first bewail,

Thy bondage or lost sight?

Prison within prison

Inseparably dark.

Thou art become-O worst imprisonment !

The dungeon of thyself; thy soul

-Which men enjoying sight oft without cause complain

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