Una Parola, O Adina

A word, or Adina
The tiresome habit!
The usual sighs! You'd do better
To go to the city to your uncle
Who is said to be sick and seriously

His illness is nothing compared to mine
I can't leave
A thousand times I tried

But if he dies
And leaves another heir?
And what do I care?
I will die of hunger, and without any support

Either of hunger or of love, it's all the same to me
Listen to me. You are good
You are modest, not like that sergeant
You certainly think you inspire affection in me
So I speak frankly to you
And I tell you that in vain you hope for love
That I am capricious, and there is no desire
That doesn't die in me as soon as it awakens

Oh, Adina!... And why?
What a beautiful question!
Ask the flattering breeze
Why it flies incessantly
Now on the lily, now on the rose
Now on the meadow, now on the stream
It will tell you that it is in its nature
To be mobile and unfaithful

So I must?
Renounce my love, flee from myself
Dear Adina!... I can't
You can't? Why?
Why!

Ask the river why, moaning
From the cliff where it was born
It runs to the sea, which invites it
And in the sea it goes to die
It will tell you that it is dragged
By a power that cannot be explained

So you want?
To die like it
But to die following you
Love elsewhere: It is allowed to you
Ah! It is not possible

To heal from such madness
For constant love is madness
You must follow my custom
Change lovers every day
Like nail drives out nail
So love drives out love
In this way I laugh and enjoy
In this way I have freed my heart

Ah! I see you alone, I feel you
Day and night, and in every object
I try in vain to forget you
Your face is engraved in my heart
With the changing as you do
Every other love can change
But the first one can never
Leave the heart