"Je Veux Vivre"
I want to live
I want to live
in this intoxicating dream!
live this day again!
Sweet flame
I keep you in my soul
like a treasure!
This intoxication of youth
only lasts a day, alas.
Then comes the hour
when we cry
the heart surrenders to love
and happiness flees never to return!
Let me slumber,
far from the bleak winter,
and breathe in the rose's scent
before its leaves fall.
Sweet flame
stay in my soul
like a sweet treasure
for a long while yet!
Charles Gounod's setting of Shakespeare's classic – Romeo and Juliet.
In the opera Juliette sings this joyful declaration of her desire to live life in the moment. The aria takes place in Act 1 when Juliette has just met and danced with Count Pâris, and her maid, Gertrude, is encouraging her to marry him. Juliette responds with this aria, telling Gertrude that she wishes to stay in this intoxicating dream of youth instead of getting married.