CHORUS: 
This I will do with peril of my life,
And blind you with my exhortations, Cyclops. 
Hasten and thrust, 660
And parch up to dust,
The eye of the beast
Who feeds on his guest. 
Burn and blind
The Aetnean hind! 665
Scoop and draw,
But beware lest he claw
Your limbs near his maw.

CYCLOPS: 
Ah me! my eyesight is parched up to cinders.

CHORUS: 
What a sweet paean! sing me that again! 670

CYCLOPS: 
Ah me! indeed, what woe has fallen upon me! 
But, wretched nothings, think ye not to flee
Out of this rock; I, standing at the outlet,
Will bar the way and catch you as you pass.

CHORUS: 
What are you roaring out, Cyclops?

CYCLOPS: 
I perish! 675

CHORUS: 
For you are wicked.

CYCLOPS: 
And besides miserable.

CHORUS: 
What, did you fall into the fire when drunk?

CYCLOPS: 
’Twas Nobody destroyed me.

CHORUS: 
Why then no one
Can be to blame.

CYCLOPS: 
I say ’twas Nobody
Who blinded me.

CHORUS: 
Why then you are not blind. 680

CYCLOPS: 
I wish you were as blind as I am.

CHORUS: 
Nay,
It cannot be that no one made you blind.

CYCLOPS: 
You jeer me; where, I ask, is Nobody?

CHORUS: 
Nowhere, O Cyclops.

CYCLOPS: 
It was that stranger ruined me:—­the wretch 685
First gave me wine and then burned out my eye,
For wine is strong and hard to struggle with. 
Have they escaped, or are they yet within?

CHORUS: 
They stand under the darkness of the rock
And cling to it.

CYCLOPS: 
At my right hand or left? 690

CHORUS: 
Close on your right.

CYCLOPS: 
Where?

CHORUS: 
Near the rock itself. 
You have them.

CYCLOPS: 
Oh, misfortune on misfortune! 
I’ve cracked my skull.

CHORUS: 
Now they escape you—­there.

NOTE: 
693 So B.; Now they escape you there 1824.

CYCLOPS: 
Not there, although you say so.

CHORUS: 
Not on that side.

CYCLOPS: 
Where then?

CHORUS: 
They creep about you on your left. 695

CYCLOPS: 
Ah!  I am mocked!  They jeer me in my ills.

CHORUS: 
Not there! he is a little there beyond you.

CYCLOPS: 
Detested wretch! where are you?

ULYSSES: 
Far from you
I keep with care this body of Ulysses.