灾难的磁石迫使他们

Compelled by calamity's magnet

游荡，凝视，好像那烧毁的房子

They loiter and stare as if the house

是他们的，仿佛他们以为

Burnt-out were theirs, or as if they thought

每时每刻都有丑闻从烟熏的壁橱

Some scandal might any minute ooze

渗到光天化日之下；

From a smoke-choked closet into light;

任何死亡或巨大的伤害

No deaths, no prodigious injuries

都不能满足这些猎手，他们还在

Glut these hunters after an old meat,

追逐那块肉，严酷悲剧的血迹。

Blood-spoor of the austere tragedies.

母亲美狄亚穿着绿色女衬衣

Mother Medea in a green smock

像所有家庭妇女，谦卑地

Moves humbly as any housewife through

行走于她被毁的房间，估量

Her ruined apartments, taking stock

烧焦的鞋子，湿透的家具衬垫：

Of charred shoes, the sodden upholstery:

观众被骗夺了火葬柴堆与肢刑架，

Cheated of the pyre and the rack,

吸干她最后一滴泪，扭头就走。

The crowd sucks her last tear and turns away.