PARODOS (Entry of Chorus) MP3

Ever and always the Clouds!
Up on high we shall fly in our nebulous misty splendour.
Rising from out of our deep-roaring father the ocean
Up to the loftiest peaks of the tree-covered mountains
So there, visible from afar, we can gaze on the fruitful earth—
Holy rain-watered earth!
And melodious rivulets gurgling sacredly
To the sea with its deep-droning harmony.
O but the tireless eye in the Aether is winking
With blazing radiation.
Shaking away from our immortal essence
The nebulous precipitation we’ll gaze on the earth
With eyes that see from afar off...

Rain-bringing maidens we are!
Let us go see the glittering realm of Athena, see the
Beautiful land of the brave that was Cecrops’.
There one may find ineffable rites, when the
temple is open to
welcome initiates in sacred mysteries.
There to celestial gods are gifts given,
temples with lofty vaulting, devotion al
statues, most solemn processionals honour ing
blessed and garlanded gods, sacrifices and feasts con
tinuous ev’ry season.
And with the coming of Spring, Dionysian
joy and the dance of melodious choruses
and music of deep-droning oboes.

LYRIC DIALOGUE (O the Spirit!) MP3

(Clouds) O the spirit of this man—
Not unenduring, but full daring!
Know full well:
When you have learned from me all of these things
You will hear men praise your name to heaven
(Strepsiades) What will I get?
(Clouds) For eternity, under my guidance,
You will lead the most envied life of all men.
Strepsiades: Really now, this is what I shall see some day?
(Clouds) Yes, so that always there on your doorstep will
Settle crowds of people,
Wanting the benefit of your company,
And to converse with you about actions and
Lawsuits with great money,
Taking your counsel on matters worthy of you and your mind.

PARABASIS

VALEDICTORY MP3

Go then and fare thee well,
God speed you for your great courage!
Happiness and good fortune come
To him, because, though sinking
To the depths of antiquity,
The codger is dipping his todger
In the vat of new ideas
And the pursuit of knowledge.

INVOCATION

Strophe: MP3
Loftiest ruler of the gods,
Zeus absolute, I summon to
Dance with me first, for greatness.
Next to the dance I summon Poseidon the great,
Shaker of earth and salty sea,
Guardian of the trident.
And then our own, widely-known-in-the-world father,
Holiest Aether, who cherishes everything living.
And last the sun, charioteer,
Whose bright-shining rays dominate
All the earth, a great force among
Both mortals and immortals.

Antistrophe: MP3
Grant me your presence also, lord
Phoebus Apollo, ruling the
Mountainous isle of Delos.
Artemis blessed come from your temple of gold
In Ephesus, where virgins of
Lydia love you greatly.
And then our own native goddess beside us to
Shield us and guide us, the city’s protectress Athena.
And who in winter, with Apollo
Gone, rules Delphi, torches blazing,
With crazed women revellers—
Mad wine god Dionysus.

HOW MANY GIFTS

Strophe:
So cogitate in every way:
Now you must concentrate,
Twist yourself in knots.
Then by chance, if you fall in a cul-de-sac,
You quickly jump to
Another track— (song interrupted by dialogue)

Antistrophe: MP3
Can you see now how many gifts
You’ll be awarded by
Us alone of gods?
So prepared is this man to do everything
You tell him to do!
But you, because you’ve seen this man’s
Obvious anguished state of mind,
Rapidly and gluttonously
Gobble as much as you can.
For in such things, results
Tend to be unexpected.

MATCH OF THE CENTURY

Strophe: MP3
These two, who place confidence in
Sophisticated speeches
And cogitations, coining their
Sententious disputations,
Will now display which is the best
at rhetoric, for now the whole
Title of great wisdom is here
Up in the air.
That is the prize for winning the
Match of the century, friends.

Antistrophe: MP3
(to Right Argument) O you who protect the exalted
Citadel of wisdom,
Sweet flower of sound-mindedness
Blooms on your disquisition.
How fortunate they must have been
Who lived in the old-timer’s day!
(to Wrong Argument) Answer you must, you with your fine
Fair-seeming Muse.
Spin something innovative; for
This man has won approval.

WICKED DEEDS MP3

Strophe:
Oh what a curse to be in love with wicked deeds!
For that is his passion.
And now the codger wants to steal
Away the money that he owes,
And there’s no way he won’t, today,
Bring some trouble on his head
To make this sophistic man
Wish fervently that he had not
Begun this undertaking.

Antistrophe:
For I predict that he will find exactly what
He has long been wanting:
That his own son, on his behalf,
Formidably expresses thoughts
Which subvert justice so much that
Anyone he comes across
He can defeat, even speaking
Wickedly. And just perhaps
He’ll wish the boy’d been born mute.

FATHER AND SON

Strophe: MP3
(to Strepsiades) Your job it is, old man, to contemplate some means
By which you can beat him.
For he, if he did not have something up his sleeve,
Would not be so shameless.
No, there is something makes him bold.
Quite clear, at least, the gall of this human!

Antistrophe: MP3
(to Pheidippides) I’m sure that all the young men’s hearts are beating hard
To hear what he will say;
For if he can do deeds like this, then, blathering,
He can win us over,
Then I would not give even one garbanzo bean
For the skin of the old folks!

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