Met., Book 7 (Medea)

2022 McCarter, 7.22--23, p.177

Some strange new force draws me against my will. / Desire pulls me one way, but my mind another. / I see and praise what's right, yet want what's wrong.

2004 Raeburn

I am dragged along by a strange new force. Desire and reason / are pulling in different directions. I see the right way and approve it, / but follow the wrong.

1993 Mandelbraum, p.203c (Everyman's)

Instead, despite myself, a force that I have never known before impels me now: / my longing needs one thing; my reason seeks / another. I can see---and I approve / the better course, and yet I choose the worse.

1986 Melvile, p.144c

But against my will some force bewitches me; / One way desire, another reason calls; / The better course I see and do approve---/ The worse I follow.

1983 Humphries, p.160c

What for? Unhappy girl, shake from the bosom / This burning fire, if you can. If I could do it, / I would be more sensible, but some new power / Holds me against my will, and reason calls / One way, desire another. I see, approving, / Things that are good, and yet I follow worse ones.

1958 Horace Gregory, p.173

But now against my will an unknown power / Has made me weak---heat sways me one way, / And my mind another: I see the wiser, / Yet I take the wrong.