Antigonick Read online

  historically

  his prophecies are never false

  Kreon:

  I know

  I’m shaking

  Chorus:

  take advice

  Kreon:

  tell me

  Chorus:

  set the girl free

  Kreon:

  you mean

  Chorus:

  quick quick quick

  Kreon:

  it hurts

  Chorus:

  quick quick quick

  Kreon:

  I go

  [exit Kreon]

  Chorus:

  another

  an hour

  an hour and a half

  a year

  a split second

  a decade

  this instant

  a second

  a split second

  a now

  a nick

  a neck

  Kreon rushes out

  all the guards rush out

  hang by the neck until:

  here we are

  in a song about joy

  here we are in a day about dust

  the dust it takes to house enemies

  the house it takes to dust justice

  the justice it takes to dodge a bullet

  the bullet it takes to justify lovers

  the love in which to delete your own darling

  the darling you dust

  the dust you disperse

  the you who does not

  does not what

  does not

  nick

  here we are we're all fine

  we’re standing in

  the nick of time

  [enter Messenger]

  Messenger:

  O people

  there is no stanza of human life that

  I would praise or blame

  luck sends your powerboat up or

  down the waves at any given moment

  no seer can see what’s next

  Kreon (I thought) was an enviable man

  for he saved this land of Kadmos

  he got his hands on monarchy

  he sailed it straight and furrows of children flourished around him

  now all that’s gone

  when joy betrays you

  I do not count your life alive

  a corpse is more alive

  be as rich as you like be absolute

  if your joy goes

  I wouldn’t buy you for a shadow of smoke

  Chorus:

  you’re the Messenger

  what’s your message

  Messenger:

  they’re dead

  Chorus:

  who’s dead

  Messenger:

  Haimon’s dead

  Chorus:

  by whose hand

  Messenger:

  a hand very like his own

  Chorus:

  okay Teiresias, point match game

  Messenger:

  game’s not over

  Chorus:

  you’re right

  here’s Eurydike wife of Kreon

  what’s she up to

  [enter Eurydike]

  Eurydike:

  this is Eurydike’s monlogue

  it’s her only speech in the play

  you may not know who she is

  that’s okay

  like poor Mrs. Ramsay

  who died in a bracket

  of To the Lighthouse

  she’s the wife of the man

  whose moods tensify

  the world of this story

  the world sundered by her

  I say sundered by her

  that girl with the undead

  strapped to her back

  a state of exception

  marks the limit of the law

  this violent thing

  this fragile thing

  try to unclench

  we said to her

  she never did

  we got her the bike

  we got a therapist

  that poor sad man

  with his odd ideas

  some days he made us

  sit on the staircase

  all on different steps

  or videotaped us

  but when we watched it

  was nothing but shadows

  finally we expelled her we had to

  using the logic of friend and foe

  that she denies

  but how can she deny

  the rule to which she is an exception

  is she autoimmune

  no she is not

  have you heard this expression

  the nick of time

  what is a nick

  I asked my son

  what is a nick

  I asked my son

  when the Messenger comes

  I set him straight

  I tell him nobody’s missing

  we’re all here

  we’re all fine

  why do you Messengers always

  exaggerate

  exit Eurydike bleeding from all orifices

  [Eurydike does not exit]

  Messenger:

  O beloved queen

  I wish I could say I did not see

  what was left of Polyneikes

  the dogtorn parts

  the parts lying

  the parts gathered

  the parts burned on a sacred pile I wish

  I could say

  I did not see

  the stones shrieking

  the girl hanging

  the boy a bloody lung

  the father on his knees

  the bolt leaving the wall

  the sword sinking up to its own mouth

  O my queen

  I did not see

  Death marry them at last

  oh so shyly

  but I did

  I did see it

  exit Eurydike

  Chorus:

  exit Eurydike

  Eurydike:

  exit Eurydike

  [exit Eurydike]

  Messenger:

  too big a silence

  [exit Messenger]

  FINAL EPISODE 1257–1353

  Chorus:

  here comes Kreon

  dragging his

  dragging his

  dragging his what

  [enter Kreon with body of Haimon]

  Kreon:

  here is my crime it was

  my hard killing mind it was

  my deadly goings wrong O

  my child

  too soon dead O

  this sacrilege that I called public policy it was

  my child

  assassinated

  by my folly

  Chorus:

  you’re late

  to learn

  what’s what

  aren’t you

  Kreon:

  late to learn O yes I am

  late too late O then O then

  some god slammed down on me

  a heavy weight

  some god shook me out on those raw roads

  alas for the joy of my life that I’ve trampled underfoot

  alas for us all going dark

  [enter Messenger]

  Messenger:

  okay Kreon

  widen your eyes

  Kreon:

  what now

  what worse

  Messenger:

  Eurydike is dead

  E
urydike is dead

  Kreon:

  O filth of Death

  who can clean you out

  O laugh of Death

  you crack me

  you crack me open

  you crack me open again

  here comes Kill

  Kreon’s verb for today

  now he is perfectly blended with pain

  Messenger:

  Eurydike cursed you

  your wife cursed you

  assassin of your own child she said

  and she undid her eyes to the dark

  Kreon:

  yes yes of course

  of course she did

  Messenger:

  she blamed you

  Kreon:

  and then

  Messenger:

  stabbed herself in the liver

  Kreon:

  yes yes she did

  of course in the liver

  yes I am to blame

  take Kreon away

  he no more exists than someone who does not exist

  Chorus:

  briefest is best

  when evil is all around

  Kreon:

  I want Kreon’s death

  Chorus:

  that’s the future this is the present

  you deal with the present

  Kreon:

  to die is my only prayer

  Chorus:

  then don’t pray at all

  you don’t get to run this

  Kreon:

  take Kreon away please take Kreon away

  where can I look

  where can I turn

  everything I touch goes wrong

  an unbearable fate has loaded itself onto my head

  Chorus:

  last word

  wisdom: better get some

  even too late

  [exeunt omnes except Nick who continues measuring]

  Copyright © 2012, 2015 by Anne Carson

  All rights reserved. Except for brief passages quoted in a newspaper, magazine, radio, television, or website review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher.

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  First published clothbound by New Directions in 2012

  First published as a New Directions Paperbook (ndp1322) in 2015

  Design by Erik Rieselbach

  The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

  Sophocles, author.

  [Antigone. English]

  Antigonick / Sophokles ; translated by Anne Carson.

  ISBN 978-0-8112-2292-1

  ISBN 978-0-8112-2293-8 (e-book)

  I. Carson, Anne, 1950– II. Title.

  PA4414.A7C37 2015

  882'.01—dc23 2014046878

  New Directions Books are published for James Laughlin

  by New Directions Publishing Corporation

  80 Eighth Avenue, New York 10011