first scene failures

Two things happened this week:

-my dad kindly brought up my five-volume Alkalai Hebrew-English English-Hebrew dictionary, which is marvelous, and without which I would be utterly crippled;
-I subsequently sat down to some real grappling with the first scene. With ... decidedly mixed results. I cannot possibly overstate the awkwardness of this play; I can hardly comprehend it. It's marvelous and strange. Here's what I have so far in terms of dialogue [without the copious footnotes I am including in all] ... prepare for the awkward:


First Act

First Scene (ma’amad???)

[a village in the mountains, evening. men and women, the elderly and children. the sound of a trumpet: a sign for the Roman soldiers to enter their barracks, soldiers hurrying to the camp]


ONE OF THE JEWS
Have you seen the cows of Edom?

SECOND JEW
They are fattened!

THIRD JEW
Real oak trees.

WOMAN
Like lions! No?

FIRST JEW
But I saw them, and not just thus:
They abated like rabbits then!
Have you forgotten the war of Quietus?

FOURTH JEW
No!
I remember the days of Papus and Lulinus.

SECOND JEW
For his sake the javelins were silent: “Don’t forget!”

FOURTH JEW
In Latakiah we cleaved unto them once:
and they fled to the mountain recess – one Turmah.
Trajan, may his bones be pounded ere he comes!