THE FLOWER DUET from LAKME by Leo Delibes, new English translation by Joel Sattler
[please note: this is not an EXACT translation, but it's close, and is meant to be singable]
LAKME:
Look Mallika! Lianes are in bloom
Casting downward their shadows
Over the sacred stream that flows calm and somber
Awakened by the sound of the song-happy birds!
MALLIKA:
Oh dear mistress!
It's time at last I see you smiling
The time has come and I am reading
What was closed up in the heart of Lakme!
LAKMÉ [in duet with Mallika, below]:
Dome canopy sweet jasmine
All the roses forever
Flowers in the morn freshly born
Call us to come together
Ah glide along and sing along
The current so strong
The sun so hot the water is shimmering
Hand skimming the surface nonchalantly
Cutting through the edge
While birds are singing singing sing enchanted
Dome canopy white jasmine
Call us to come together
Please
MALLIKA [in duet with Lakme, above]:
Under dome canopy where the white jasmine
All the roses forever
River flowers in the morn freshly born
Let us both go down together
Gently we glide on and we float along
Follow the current so strong
The sun so hot the water is shimmering
Hand skimming the surface nonchalantly
Come let us reach the edge
Where the spring sleeps
And birds singing, sing enchanted
Under dome canopy where the white jasmine
Let us go down together
LAKME:
I, don't know what overcame me
To fill my heart full of fear
When my father goes down alone to the doomed city
I tremble, I tremble, my dear
MALLIKA:
Ganesha will watch over his protege
Up til the pond where the merry do play
With wings of snow swans are swimming
Come let us pick the lotus blue
LAKME:
Oh yes, let's go where white swans are swimming
And let us pick the lotus blue
YOU ARE READING
