"VOI CHE SAPETE, DONNE VEDETE"
YOU WHO KNOw, O LADIES DO TELL
You know what love is, tell me, what can it be
My ladies, what is this yearning inside my heart?
What I feel - let me tell you!
Is all new to me and I don't understand
I have a feeling, full of desire
In one moment - I'm delighted, the next is a misery!
I freeze, and then I feel my soul go up in flames
and then the next moment I turn to ice.
I'm searching for something good, outside of me
but I don't know how to hold it, or even what it is!
I sigh and groan, without wanting to
I shake and tremble without knowing why
I can't find peace at day or night...
but it still pleases me to languish in this way!
You who know what love is, tell me, what can it be
My ladies, what is this yearning inside my heart?
In Mozart's most popular comic opera The Marriage of Figaro, Cherubino represents all that is joyous and confusing about the first experiences of love. He finds himself besotted with all the women around him in the Count's court, but particulary with the very unattainable Countess. However, he decides if he sings this song, which he wrote, for the Countess, laying bare his soul, she just might help him, or even favour him with a kiss!