Grew tired of your bed and felt the need of a new bride;

Nor with any wish to outdo your number of children.

We have enough already. I am quite content.

But—this was the main reason—that we might live well,

And not be short of anything. I know that all

A man’s friends leave him stone-cold if he becomes poor.

Also that I might bring my children up worthily

Of my position, and, by producing more of them

To be brothers of yours, we would draw the families

Together and all be happy. You need no children.

And it pays me to do good to those I have now

By having others. Do you think this a bad plan?

You wouldn’t if the love question hadn’t upset you.

But you women have got into such a state of mind

That, if your life at night is good, you think you have

Everything; but, if in that quarter things go wrong,

You will consider your best and truest interests

Most hateful. It would have been better far for men

To have got their children in some other way, and women

Not to have existed. Then life would have been good.

CHORUS

Jason, though you have made this speech of yours look well,

Still I think, even though others do not agree,

You have betrayed your wife and are acting badly

MEDEA

Surely in many ways I hold different views

From others, for I think that the plausible speaker

Who is a villain deserves the greatest punishment.

Confident in his tongues power to adorn evil,

He stops at nothing. Yet he is not really wise.

As in your case. There is no need to put on the airs

Of a clever speaker, for one word will lay you flat.

If you were not a coward, you would not have married

Behind my back, but discussed it with me first.

JASON

And you, no doubt, would have furthered the proposal,

If I had told you of it, you who even now

Are incapable of controlling your bitter temper.

MEDEA

It was not that. No, you thought it was not respectable

As you got on in years to have a foreign wife.

JASON

Make sure of this: it was not because of a woman

I made the royal alliance in which I now live,

But, as I said before, I wished to preserve you

And breed a royal progeny to be brothers

To the children I have now, a sure defense to us.

MEDEA

Let me have no happy fortune that brings pain with it,

Or prosperity which is upsetting to the mind!

JASON

Change your ideas of what you want, and show more sense.

Do not consider painful what is good for you,

Nor, when you are lucky, think yourself unfortunate.

MEDEA

You can insult me. You have somewhere to turn to.

But I shall go from this land into exile, friendless.

JASON

It was what you chose yourself. Don’t blame others for it.