Hector's Farewell by Friedrich Schiller

Translation

Hector taking leave of Andromache: the Fright of Astyanax (1766) by Benjamin West

Andromache
Hector, are you now forever leaving
Me to venture where Achilles, weeping,
Piles dire hecatombs for Patroclus?
Who will teach your dear child how to hurl pikes,
Or to honor gods amid Troy’s great fights,
When you’re swallowed by shady Orcus?

Hector
Please, hold back your tears, Andromache dearest;
Battlefields now call out with fiery shrieks—
To prevent the spill of Pergamus’ blood.
Braving all for the gods of our homeland
And to save fair Ilium’s heroic band,
Gladly will I enter the Stygian flood.

Andromache
Never will I hear your clashing arms,
Your glaive will stand idly in our halls,
Priam’s race of heroes will be dust.
To the land of permanent eclipses,
Where in deserts flows weeping Cocytus,
There, in Lethe will our love be lost.

Hector
Although all my dreams and hopes must perish
In the quiet floods of Lethe’s waters—
Our love, dear, can never die.
Hear the savage raging under our spires:
Gird my sword, hold back…