Principessa a tuoi sguardi

English Libretto or Translation:

SECOND SCENE
Idamante, Ilia

Recitative
IDAMANTE
Princess, if I still dare
to offer myself to your sight, a bold passion
no longer guides me; now I seek no more
than to ask your forgiveness, and to die.

ILIA
Die? You, prince?

IDAMANTE
The longer I stay, the more I burn with love for you,
and my guilt weighs more heavily; ah, why delay
the punishment?

ILIA
But what is causing you
to seek death?

IDAMANTE
My father,
full of rage and fury,
eyes me grimly and avoids me
without revealing the reason.
Ensnared by your chains, your harshness
exposes me to new torments. A savage monster
wreaks dreadful havoc far and wide;
now I must go to fight it
and try to destroy it
‑ or may death end my torments!

ILIA
O prince, calm this melancholy ferment:
recall that you are the sole hope
of a great empire.

IDAMANTE
Without your love,
without you, Ilia, nothing matters to me.

ILIA
Poor me! … Oh preserve your life.

IDAMANTE
I must pursue my cruel fate.

ILIA
No, live … Ilia implores you.

IDAMANTE
O gods, what do I hear?
Adored princess! ...

ILIA
My troubled heart
cannot conceal from you
my weakness;
in my breast too much love and fear
are mingled.

IDAMANTE
Do I hear aright? Or does my hearing only imagine
what it longs for? Or does my ardent passion
excite my senses so that a sweet dream
flatters my oppressed heart?

ILIA
Ah, why did I not perish
before disclosing my passion? My soul
is overwhelmed with remorse. My sacred duty,
my honour, my country, my kinsmen's blood
still hot, oh how they reproach
the rebellious love in my heart! …
But what can I do? Now that I see you
in deadly danger, my dearest,
and only I can save you, hear me, I tell you again:
I love you! I adore you! And if you wish to die,
grief will already have killed me before you can do so.