Radunate i Troiani

English Libretto or Translation:

SECOND SCENE
Idamante, Ilia, followers of Idamante

IDAMANTE
to his followers
Go, assemble the Trojans, and let the court
prepare to celebrate this day.
to Ilia
My grief is diminished
by one ray of sweet hope.
Minerva, protectress of Greece,
saved my father from the waves' fury;
his ships have been sighted at sea, not far from here;
Arbace is looking for the spot where his noble face
is kept from us.

ILIA
with irony
Fear not: Greece is protected
by Minerva, while all the wrath
of the gods has burst upon the Trojans.

IDAMANTE
Grieve no more over the Trojans' fate.
The son will do for them as much
as his father or any other generous victor
would. See, princess,
their woes are ended:
I give them back their freedom, and now
one prisoner alone remains among us, he who wears
the sweet chains in which your beauty binds him.

ILIA
What do I hear, my lord? Are the hatred and scorn
of the implacable gods for Ilium
not yet satisfied, now that its glorious walls
are destroyed ‑ ah, no longer walls
but a vast and level plain? Are our sad eyes
condemned to eternal weeping?

IDAMANTE
Venus has punished us and triumphs over us.
How my father ‑ alas the thought! -
suffered in the heart of the waves! Agamemnon,
finally a victim in Argos, bought his victory
dear, and the hostile goddess, still not content
with such massacre,
what did she do? She pierced my heart,
Ilia, with your lovely eyes,
more potent than her own,
and now avenges your sufferings on me.

ILIA
What are you saying?

IDAMANTE
Yes, Cytherea's son
has planted unknown torments
in my heart: to you Mars has brought
tears. and agitation, and Love, seeking revenge
on me for your wrongs, employed your lovely eyes
and your beauty ... But you
flush and flare up in anger at my love?

ILIA
I take ill
the bold ardour of these words. O God!
Consider, Idamante,
who your father is, and who mine was.