The Frog Chorus¶
From Aristophanes’ The Frogs.
Frogs (off stage): Brekekekex, ko-ax, ko-ax,
Brekekekex, ko-ax, ko-ax!
We children of the fountain and the lake
Let us wake
Our full choir-shout, as the flutes are ringing out,
Our symphony of clear-voiced song.
The song we used to love in the Marshland up above,
In praise of Dionysus to produce,
Of Nysaean Dionysus, son of Zeus,
When the revel-tipsy throng, all crapulous and gay,
To our precinct reeled along on the holy Pitcher day,
Brekekekex, ko-ax, ko-ax.
Dionysus: O, dear! O, dear! now I declare
I’ve got a bump upon my rump,
Frogs: Brekekekex, ko-ax, ko-ax.
Dionysus: But you, perchance, don’t care.
Frogs: Brekekekex, ko-ax, ko-ax.
Dionysus: Hang you, and your ko-axing tool
There’s nothing but ko-ax with you.
Frogs: That is right, Mr. Busybody, right!
For the Muses of the lyre love us well;
And hornfoot Pan who plays on the pipe his jocund lays;
And Apollo, Harper bright, in our Chorus takes delight;
For the strong reed’s sake which I grow within my lake
To be girdled in his lyre’s deep shell.
Brekekekex, ko-ax, ko-ax.
Dionysus: My hands are blistered very sore;
My stern below is sweltering so,
‘Twill soon, I know, upturn and roar
Brekekekex, ko-ax, ko-ax.
O tuneful race, O pray give o’er,
O sing no more.
Frogs: Ah, no! ah, no!
Loud and louder our chant must flow.
Sing if ever ye sang of yore,
When in sunny and glorious days
Through the rushes and marsh-flags springing
On we swept, in the joy of singing
Myriad-diving roundelays.
Or when fleeing the storm, we went
Down to the depths, and our choral song
Wildly raised to a loud and long
Bubble-bursting accompaniment.
Frogs and Dionysus: Brekekekex, ko-ax, ko-ax.
Dionysus: This timing song I take from you.
Frogs: That’s a dreadful thing to do.
Dionysus: Much more dreadful, if I row
Till I burst myself, I trow.
Frogs and Dionysus: Brekekekex, ko-ax, ko-ax.
Dionysus: Go, hang yourselves; for what care I?
Frogs: All the same we’ll shout and cry,
Stretching all our throats with song,
Shouting, crying, all day long,
Frogs and Dionysus: Brekekekex, ko-ax, ko-ax.
Dionysus: In this you’ll never, never win.
Frogs: This you shall not beat us in.