Ah, ah! Speak like the breath of a slender reed-pipe, my dear, I pray.ChorusSee, how soft and low I drop my voice.ElectraYes, do so; approach now, softly, softly! Give me an account of why you have come here. For at last he has lain down, and sleeps.

ChorusHow is he? You give us an account, my dear; what has happened, what misfortune?ElectraHe is still breathing, but his moans grow feeble.ChorusWhat are you saying? turning to Orestes. Unhappy Orestes!ElectraYou will kill him, if you disturb him from the sweet sleep he now enjoys.ChorusPoor sufferer, for his hateful deeds, inspired by a god!ElectraAh, misery! Injustice it was, after all, from an unjust mouth, when Loxias on the tripod of Themis decreed my mother’s most unnatural murder.

ChorusDo you see? He stirs beneath his robe!ElectraAlas! Your noisy chatter has roused him from his sleep.ChorusNo, I think he is asleep.ElectraLeave us, go away from the house! circle back again! cease this noise!ChorusHe is asleep.ElectraYou are right.These words are assigned to the Chorus in the translation but have been moved to correlate to the Greek. O Lady Night, giver of sleep to hard-working mortals, come from Erebus, come, wing your way to the palace of Agamemnon. For with misery and woe we are lost, we are gone.There! To the Chorus. that noise again! Do be still and keep the sound of your voice away from his couch; let him enjoy his sleep in peace, my dear!

ChorusTell me, what end of troubles awaits him.ElectraDeath, death; what else? For he has no desire for food.ChorusThen his destiny is already clear.ElectraPhoebus offered us up for sacrifice, when he ordered the pitiable, unnatural murder of our mother, who killed our father.ChorusIt was just.ElectraBut it was not well done. You killed and were killed, my mother! and you have slain a father and your own children; for we are dead or as good as dead. You are in your grave, and the greater part of my life is spent in weeping and wailing, and tears at night; unmarried, childless, I drag out forever a joyless existence.