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Through his fields the carriage will go
and through his tall, still woods, yes,
tall, still woods that suit him;
then his horsemen will ride out to meet us,
"This is your mistress," he will say,
"l have fetched her", he will say, "from the imperial city,"
"But she never wants to go back;"
"she wants to stay with me in my woods,"
Arabella!
Impossible!
It's unthinkable!
You here?
At this hour?
So you're still staying here?
You here? I must ask the same question, Arabella!
Are you going out again at such a late hour?
I've just come back from the ball and I'm going up to my room,
Goodnight!
Just come back from the ball!
You're going to your room?
A girl's heart is a mystery,
an unfathomable!
Yes, goodnight,
What's so amusing?
O Arabella!
If you've anything else to say to me
please leave it until tomorrow, not now, not here!
Anything else?
Me? Anything else?
O dearest Arabella, I want to thank you
until the end of my days!
Thank me? What for?
Everything between us is well and truly over,
"Thank me? What for?"
The sheer artistry is beyond me!
Such a virtuoso performance is frightening,
- What's the matter with you? - Acting so well
for acting's sake,
and without an audience! It's really too much!
That borders on evil witchery!
I don't understand a word of what you say
- and so goodnight, - Oh, all right!
Now one more look, just one that tells me
that deep down you are the same!
The same?
The same?
The same as a quarter of an hour ago!
I was elsewhere a quarter of an hour ago!
A quarter of an hour ago! Yes! Up there!
I don't know what you mean
and don't wish to stand here any longer!
It's too much! Such cold control over every nerve!
After those wonderful moments,,, no man can bear this!
I appeal to the one drop of blood in you
that is incapable of feigning!
You've lost your senses!
Matteo! Let me go or I'll cry for help!
You could drive a man to distraction
Iike nobody else in the world!
If with one last look you seal
what happened between us up there
I will ask nothing else of you in the world!
There are people coming, Let me go!
I swore that you would be free of me,
amidst your tears and gentle kisses I swore it,
as from tomorrow!
I will keep to my word! It was dark,
I couldn't see your eyes,
Look at me now
to seal everything for the last time
and you will be free of me for ever!
What an animated tete-a-tete is going on on the stairs!
So you haven't retired for the night?
What's the meaning of this, child?
Nothing, Mama, nothing at all,
Yes, It's that cursed man with the key,
I didn't expect to see you again today, Herr von Mandryka!
I ask for your permission to leave, Countess!
- Welko! - Do you recognize him, sir?
Pack my bags! We're taking the first train home,
None of this concerns you, Mandryka,
I came home, met this gentleman,
He's an old friend of ours,
I'll tell you all about it later if you wish,
You really must excuse me!
O Vienna! Town of scandals and intrigue!
You wretch!
Wait a moment!
There still appears to be some misunderstanding here,
Tell us where you've just come from, child!
Did the lieutenant accompany you back from the ball?
Did you allow him to?
Papa, look me in the eyes!
Can one madman send everyone mad
- in a twinkling? - Have you nothing to tell me?
Absolutely nothing, Papa, other than what you've known
all evening,
Or perhaps you don't know?
I am much relieved,
So there!
Nothing has happened! Nothing at all!
Forget all the excitement and goodnight!
Please go through, We'll play again in a minute,
I will help, in as much as money and good will can help
to hush up this wretched farce
for I am not suited to the role
that you've given me to play, dear lady,
- O thrice unfortunate encounter! - No, no, how is this possible!
Let's not make a song and dance of it, please!
How is this possible!
Mandryka, listen to what I say,
As sure as there is a God in heaven
you have nothing to forgive me for!
Rather it is you
I must forgive, if I can,
for what you said
and how you said it!
I'd have to be blind but alas I have sharp eyes,
I'd have to be deaf but alas I have good ears,
I'd have to be weak in the head
then perhaps I wouldn't recognize this individual
or realize what people are up to here at night,
Sir,
if you have any rights here,
even if of a very recent nature,
I stand at your disposal!
This man has every right
for he is betrothed to me,
You, however, have not the least,
not the slightest right!
Say so yourself!
- No,,, none,,, - Do you hear?
You should have let the man finish!
Another word was on the tip of his tongue,
"No, none, except",
he meant to say and quickly swallowed it!
I though, I saw it on his lips,
Matteo, I've never held you to be base!
What are you doing to me!
You want out of spite to compromise me before all the world!
- You want to spoil my marriage for me! - Miserable schemer!
That's how he would deviously obtain my child's hand!
"Except,,," Out with the unspoken truth!
Not a word! Not a word!
Except the right, he meant to say,
that this night has bestowed upon me!
You try!
Perhaps to you alone he'll have something to say about it!
Have you anything to say to me in front of this man?
No!
I congratulate you, lieutenant,
on your success with pretty women and on your discretion,
- both are equally great, - Did you hear that, Papa?
Mandryka, you'll give me satisfaction for that!
Where are my pistols? They've been pawned? Damn!
I shall get some more,
Let everything turn out as it will,
Iife is worthless!
What in the world is of any value
if this man is so weak
that he lacks the courage to believe in me,
if he abandons me over a trifle such as this!
- What? - No! This young man is unworthy,,,
Do you know what's happening? Who has caught whom out?
-,,,of coming before your pistol! - What? She wanted to go away?
Theodor! This is all a despicable intrigue thought up by a spurned suitor,
- nothing more! - Who said anything about him?
Mandryka owes me satisfaction!
I alone am guilty,
I take back every word and every look!
Everything's been misinterpreted;
I didn't mean
what you thought you heard,
If anyone here deserves to be punished, it is l,
Accusing and then clearing somebody in the same breath
was not the custom when I was an officer!
The young man is being as decent as he can,
It's time
you showed him a little consideration, dear child,
Confess the truth to me, just to me!
He's your lover!
I'll do all I can, You can rely on me, Arabella!
I swear by my soul and salvation, Mandryka,
that I speak the truth!
Don't perjure your soul like that, child!
My heart grieves for you!
Oh, God, how you shame me through this woman!
But I saw the boy
handing him the key to your room,
- What boy? - The boy, your footman you sent!
- Zdenko? Heavens! Or who? - Aha!
I want you to confess! Just to me!
Is hell then plotting against me!
On that person there, who has ruined my life,
am I to be easy on him as your lover? Speak!
The truth's on my side, Mandryka, only the truth,
for everything else, I clearly see, is against me!
For the last time!
Do you mean to marry that man
with whom you had a cosy rendezvous
ten minutes after we became betrothed?
I have nothing to say, Herr von Mandryka, to your questions,
Very well, Welko,
go and find a swordsmith, however much it may cost,
I need sabres! Two heavy, sharp-edged sabres! Immediately!
And wake up a doctor, That will be all,
We'll see this through without witnesses,
Perhaps the company would be so kind as to leave us until then,
Papa, Mama!
Papa!
Zdenka!
What an apparel! How shameful!
What's happened? Zdenkerl! Say something! I'm here with you,
I've come to say goodbye, I must go,
I must throw myself into the Danube before daybreak,
- What's the meaning of this? - Who's that pretty girl?
Haven't I seen that face somewhere today?
Forgive me for everything and let me go!
I'm so ashamed,,,
I'm dying of shame,,, Please let me go!
By sunrise I must be lying deep beneath the waves,,,
Then perhaps everybody will forgive me,
- even Papa! - You'll stay here with me,
And whatever has happened to you
will not cause anyone to love you the less!
He is innocent,
He knew nothing, I alone,,,
Keep quiet, wretched child, as long as you shall live!
No, you be quiet! Let the girl talk!
Now you are rewarded for your masquerades,
I can tell only you,
only you, you alone!
I'm here with you, I won't leave you in the lurch,
- I'm here with you! - He thought it was you!
I did it because I was afraid for him, Bella,
do you understand? He still doesn't know
it was me!
Matteo!
What sweet voice calls to me?
The voice of the woman who deceived you, Matteo!
Your friend, your only friend,
your dear Zdenko stands before you!
I am a girl and was never anything else!
O friend, dear friend!
- I must ask for your forgiveness, - You sweet angel!
you and her, both of you,,,
Oh, my God!
If you must ask to be forgiven for having too much love
then ask him
to forgive you!
It was too dark in the room;
I didn't hear your voice,
Yet, it is as if I had sensed it from the start,
O sweet little Zdenko!
The girl was the footman! I wish the earth would swallow me up!
How can I ever expect her to forgive me
when I can't even forgive myself?
Very good,
Now I have the right opponent,
This concerns the father alone,
Oho!
How meekly do I stand before you, Arabella!
I know I don't deserve a glance from you
for as long as I shall live!
Just like a fool, with both my fists, I thought
I could seize the greatest happiness,
Instead, in the twinkling of an eye, I became unworthy of it,
Now all that is left for me to do is repent and be ashamed of myself
for the rest of my life,
Zdenkerl,
you are the better of us two,
You have the more loving heart
and for you there is nothing,
nothing in the world except what your heart tells you,
I thank you, you teach me a good lesson:
that we should want nothing, demand nothing,
should neither weigh up nor bargain nor be mean,
just give and hold dear for ever!
How gently you speak to me!
You are not angry with me!
You are so inexpressibly good,
I know you as no one else knows you
and I wish to do everything out of love for you,,,
And I'd have liked quietly to disappear
and not annoy you,
But you understand me, you do, and will never leave me
whatever is about to happen!
Whatever is about to happen,,,
Oh, God! Oh, unbounded shame!
Oh, if only this evening had never been!
No fortune teller foretold this to me!
It's quite clear what is about to happen!
Whatever is to happen, I'm beside you!
- What is about to happen now,,, - Papa!
You angel from heaven, may God prevent
that the world besmirch you!
What is about to happen,,,
Mandryka!
I am not worthy of such forgiveness!
Hush, Mandryka!
Let's not say any more now,
Let's forget
what happened to us here!
It wasn't our fault,
We all want to show good will
for what is about to happen!
For what is about to happen?
Matchmaking, that's what happens!
With this man I come before you, honourable sir,
I bow and ask on behalf of him who is my friend
that you do not refuse him the hand of this young lady,
Do not refuse him what he has already been granted by love!
Matteo!
Papa! What is this?
Must I not go away?
Now you must enjoy the happiness
that you so deserve!
So do not cry, my child,
Give me your hand, sir,
Oh, Theodor, what a turn of events!
- Amazing! - Oh, Theodor!
I'm at your disposal, gentlemen!
We're off to bed, All the excitement's over!
Take her upstairs, Mama!
Let's not say anything else
until it is daylight again!
Don't you think that's a good idea?
Matteo!
Go now, He'll be back in the morning,
then he's yours for ever,
Could your servant go to the well in the courtyard
and bring me up a glass of fresh water?
I think it would do me good after this conversation,
She doesn't glance at me, she doesn't bid me goodnight,
she leaves me here and goes,
Do I deserve to be treated otherwise?
What in this world is deserved?
Nothing is deserved,
A man like me deserves to be thrown into the stocks,,,
But I would have loved to have just one glance,,,
Just the briefest of glances!
Take it up then!
She only meant to have a glass of water
and get away from the sight of me,
Or she meant to mock me! Perhaps?
At least, if she mocks me, that is a sort of grace,
though ill-deserved,
God knows it!
I am glad, Mandryka,
that you have not yet gone,,,
I meant to drink this water on my own
to help me forget all the bad things
that have happened,
then go quietly to bed
and not think about you and me
until daylight had broken over us again,
But then, when I felt that you were standing down here in the dark,
a great power descended and touched the very heart of me,
Then I knew I need not refresh myself with this drink
for I am already refreshed by my feeling of happiness,
And I proffer my friend this untouched drink,,,
,,,on the evening that saw an end to my girlhood,
As surely as nobody else will drink from this glass after me
so you are mine and I am yours for eternity!
And so we are betrothed and joined
in sorrow and joy,
in hurting and forgiving!
For ever, my angel,
come what may!
And will you believe?
And will you remain as you are?
I cannot be otherwise,
take me as I am!