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DAS RHEINGOLD
Vorabend des Buhnenfestspiels "Der Ring des Nibelungen" 
Rheingold Prelude At the bottom of the Rhine   WoglindeWeia!Waga!Waft your waves,ye waters! Carry your crests to the cradle !Wagalaweia! Wallala weia weia!  Wellgunde Woglinde, are you watching alone? Woglinde With Wellgunde there’d be two of us. Wellgunde Let’s see how you watch.  Woglinde Safe from you.  Flosshilde Heiaha weia! Sprightly sisters! Wellgunde Flosshilde,swim! Woglide’s escaping: Help me capture the truant!  Flosshilde Badly you guard the sleeping gold; watch better o’er the slumberer’s bed or you’ll both repent your sport!  Alberich Hey, hey, you nymphs! How inviting you look, enviable creature! From Nibelheim’s night I’d gladly draw near if you’d but come down to me.  Woglinde Hey! Who is there? Flosshilde Someone called from the darkness. Wellgunde See who’s spying on us!  Woglinde,Wellgunnde Ugh! How frightful! Flosshilde Guard the gold! Father warned us of such a foe.   Alberich You up there! The Three Rhinemaidens What do you want, down there? Alberich Do I spoil your sport by standing still here, starting? If you’d dive down, the Nibelung would freely frisk and frolic with you.  Woglinde Does he want to play with us Wellgunde Is he in jest?  Alberich How brightly you shine in the shimmering light! My arms would love to enfold one of your slim forms if you’d but slip down here. Flosshilde Now I laugh at my fears: our foe is in love.  Wellgunde Lascivious beast! Woglinde We’ll teach him!  Alberich She’s coming down. Woglinde Come close to me, then!  Alberich Loathsomely smooth slithery slime! I’m slipping! My hands and feet cannot seize or grip hold of the scaly slopes.  Damp fills my nostrils: curse this sneezing! Woglinde My wooer comes in splendor, spluttering!  Alberich Be my love, fairest child!  Woglinde If you would woo me. Woo me up here! Alberich Alas, do you escape me? Came back! What you manage so easily is hard for me.  Woglinde Just climb to the bottom: you’ll certainly catch me there! Alberich Much better down there!  Woglinde But now up again!  Wellgunde,Flosshilde Ha ha ha ha ha ha!  Alberich How I can catch this bashful fish in flight ? Wait, false one!
 Alberich Is it me you’re calling?  Wellgunde Take my advice: turn to me and do not heed Woglinde. Alberich For lovelier you are than that shy one who glistens less and is much too sly. Do but dive down deeper if you‘d delight me.  Wellgunde Am I close to you now? Alberich Not close enough! Twine your slender arms around me that I may toy and touch your neck and with ardent caress nestle against your soft breast.  Wellgunde If you’re enamored and longing for love, let’s see, my handsome, what you look like!  Ugt, you hairy humpbacked horror! Swarthy, scaly, sulfurous dwarf! Find yourself a sweetheart who’d suffer you! Alberich Though I don’t please you, I’ll hold you fast.  Wellgunde Fast then, or I’ll fly from you! Woglinde,Flosshilde Ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,ha !  AlberichPerfidious child! Frigid, bony fish! If I don’t seem handsome to you, fair and frolicsome, suave and sprightly--- Well, if my skin revolts you, flirt with the eels! Flosshilde
 Woglinde,WellgundeHa ha ha ha ha ha!  Alberich Do you mock me in your malice?  Flosshilde How justly at the end of the song!  Woglinde,Wellgunde Ha ha ha ha ha ha!  Alberich Alas! Alack! Woe, o woe is I! Has the third, so beloved, betrayed me too? You worthless, sly, sluttish, dissolute wenches! Do you feed only on fraud, you faithless brood of nymphs?  The three Rhine maidens Wallala! Lalaleia! Leialalei ! Heia! Heia! Haha! For shame, gnome! Don’t scold down there! Listen to what we tell you!  Why, weakling, did you not secure the maid for whom you yearned? We are free from fraud, and faithful to the wooer who holds us fast. Just se1ize on us and do not fear: in the water we cannot easily escape. Wallala! Lalaleia! Leialala ! Heia! Heia ! hahei!  Alberich How, through my frame, an ardent fire burns and flames! Fury and longing, fierce and forceful, surge through my spirit. Though you may laugh and lie, lustfully I long for you, and one of you must yield to me!   If this fist could seize one! …. (Through the waters from above penetrates an ever-increasing glow, which from high one the central rock gradually kindles into a dazzling bright gleam of gold; a magical golden light spreads from this through the water.)  Woglinde Look, sisters! The waking sun laughs in the depths. Wellgunde Through the green waters she greets the beautiful sleeper. Flosshilde Now she kisses his eyes to open them. Wellgunde See, he smiles in the shining light. Woglinde His radiant rays flood through the waters around.  The three Rhine maidens Heiahaheia! Haiahaheia! Wallalallalala leiahahei! Rhinegold! Rhinegold! Dazzling delight, how brightly and bravely you laugh! Your gleaming glow spreads a glorious light! Heiahahei! Heiahaheia!  Awake, friend, wake to joy! The liveliest games we’ll play for you: the river flashes, the waters flame, as we dive about your bed, dancing and singing in our joyous sport. Rhinegold! Rhinegold! Heiahaiheia! Wallalaleia heiahahei!  Alberich What is it, glossy ones, that so gleams and glistens there?  The three Rhinemaidens Whence come you them, uncouth one, that you have never heard of the Rhinegold?  Wellgunde Does the gnome know nothing of the eyes of gold, which in turn wake and sleep? Woglinde Of the wondrous star in the waters’ depths that shines, all glorious, through the waves?  The three Rhinemaidens See with what bliss we bask in its glow! If you, faint-heart, wish to bathe in it, then swim and sport with us! Wallalalala leialalei! Wallalala leiahalei!  Alberich Does the gold serve only for your water games? That would be little use to me!
 Flosshilde Father said so, and ordered us to guard the gleaming treasure skillfully so that no cheat should ravish it from the river: so hush, you chatterers! Wellgunde O wisest sister, are you then accusing us? Do you not know to whom alone it is gives to shape the gold?  Woglinde Only he who forswears love’s power, only he who forfeits love’s delight, only he can attain the magic to fashion the gold into a ring.  Wellgunde Then we are secure and free from care, for everything that lives wants love: no one will reject love. Woglinde Least of all that lascivious gnome: with desire for love he could die.  Flosshilde I do not fear him as I found him; the heat of his passion almost burned me. Wellgunde Like a sulfurous brand in the swelling waves, he was loudly sizzling in the fury of love!  The three Rhinemaidens Wallala! Wallaleialala! Dearest gnome, why aren’t you laughing too? In the golden glow how fair you shine! O came, beloved, laugh with us! Heiahaheia! Heiahaheia! Wallalalala leiahahei!  Alberich The world’s wealth I could win for mine through you? If I cannot extort love, then by cunning can I attain pleasure? Mock on, then! The Nibelung nears you toy!  The three Rhinemaidens Heia! Heia! Hieahahei! Save yourselves! The gnome has gone crazy! The water spumes wherever he springs: love has sent him mad！ （   Alberich Are you still not afraid? Then coquet in the dark, brood of the waters!  I will put out your light, wrench the gold from the rock, forge the ring of revenge; for hear me, ye waves:  thus I curse love!  Flosshilde |
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