Ah! ah questa e buona

English Libretto or Translation:

DON GIOVANNI
leaps over the wall, laughing
Ha, ha, ha, ha! Most amusing,
They will not seek me here.
What splendid moonlight!
'Tis as light as in daytime;
This is just such a night as suits for the chase of pretty damsels.
What time is't? Ah, not yet two o'clock in the morning;
I wish now I knew how the droll encounter ended
Between that poor Elvira and Leporello.
Let me hope he was prudent!

LEPORELLO
'Faith I think he's determin'd on my ruin.

DON GIOVANNI
I hear him. Well, Leporello?

LEPORELLO
Some one call'd me?

DON GIOVANNI
Don't you yet know my voice?

LEPORELLO
I don't know it at all, sir.

DON GIOVANNI
What has happen'd?

LEPORELLO
On your account I have almost been murdered.

DON GIOVANNI
Indeed? How very lucky, 'twas an honour for you.

LEPORELLO
Pray, keep such honours.

DON GIOVANNI
How now? I spoke in fun.
Come let me tell you a pleasant thing.

LEPORELLO
Whatever brings you here?

DON GIOVANNI
Come down and I will tell you,
I got into some trouble,
Ev'rything has gone wrong since last I saw you,
That we'll leave for the present;
One bit of scandal I must tell you at once.

LEPORELLO
Some new flirtation.

DON GIOVANNI
You're out there. As I was walking,
I espied a fair damsel with the gait of a Juno;
Of course I followed, I tried to take her hand,
She seem'd uncertain, something tender I whisper'd,
And she mistook me,
Guess for whom?

LEPORELLO
I can't think.

DON GIOVANNI
For Leporello.

LEPORELLO
For me?

DON GIOVANNI
For you.

LEPORELLO
How pleasant!

DON GIOVANNI
By the hand,
Then 'twas her turn to seize me.

LEPORELLO
Better and better.

DON GIOVANNI
She caress'd me, embraced me,
'Oh, my dear Leporello! Leporello, my darling!'
At once it struck me,
She was one of your sweethearts.

LEPORELLO
Curses be on you!

DON GIOVANNI
I did not undeceive her, but after a good while she knew me,
Took fright, at her shrieking people came,
I shot by them, nimbly and swiftly,
Espied this wall, and leap'd in safety over.

LEPORELLO
And you dare tell me this
As if it were a good story?

DON GIOVANNI
And why not?

LEPORELLO
What if she were my wife,
Then would you laugh, Sir?

DON GIOVANNI
laughs loudly
All the louder.

THE STATUE
Your jest will turn to woe, ere it is morning.

DON GIOVANNI
Who was speaking?

LEPORELLO
Oh, some soul tormented,
From the land of spirits,
Pays homage to your merits.

DON GIOVANNI
puts his hand to his sword, looks about among the tombs and strikes at some of the statues
Silence, rascal. Who goes there?

THE STATUE
Misguided, perverted,
Anger not the departed!

LEPORELLO
As I told you!

DON GIOVANNI
It must be some one
Hiding by yon wall laughing at us.
Say, can that hideous structure be the Commandant's statue?
That inscription I'd like to hear.

LEPORELLO
Excuse me, my eyesight is indiff'rent bad,
I cannot read by moonlight.

DON GIOVANNI
Read, I tell you.

LEPORELLO
reads
«I here await the vengeance
Decreed by Heaven upon a base assassin». -
You hear it? I tremble!

DON GIOVANNI
An exquisite buffoonery!
Tell the old man
I ask him to sup with me this evening.

LEPORELLO
You are mad! What is that, oh, do you see him?
What a terrible light in his eyes!
He sees us. He can hear us!
Oh, what if he would speak!

DON GIOVANNI
Be quick, obey! Or I will kill you,
And in this churchyard lay you.

LEPORELLO
Oh, unfortunate me! I must obey you.