Der Ring des Nibelungen The Ring of the Nibelung - Part 1: Das Rheingold The Rheingold - Prelude and Scene 1
[Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung)]
[Part 1: Das Rheingold (The Rheingold)]
[PRELUDE AND SCENE ONE]

[At the bottom of the Rhine.]

WOGLINDE
Weia! Waga!
Waft your waves, ye waters!
Carry your crest to the cradle!
Wagala weia!
Wallala weiala 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
Heiala weia!
Sprightly sisters!

WELLGUNDE
Flosshilde, swim!
Woglinde'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 creatures!
From Nibelheim night
I'd gladly draw near
if you'd but come down to me.
WOGLINDE
Hey! Who is there?

WELLGUNDE
Someone called from the darkness.

FLOSSHILDE
See who's spying on us!

WOGLINDE AND WELLGUNDE
Ugh! How frightful!

FLOSSHILDE
Guard the gold!
Father warned us
of such a foe

ALBERICH
You up there!

WOGLINDE, WELLGUNDE, FLOSSHILDE
What do you want, down there?

ALBERICH
Do I spoil your sport
by standing still here, staring?
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 yours slim forms
if you'd but slipdown 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 splendour,
spluttering!

ALBERICH
Be my love,
fairest child!

WOGLINDE
If you would woo me,
woo me up here

ALBERICH
Alas, do you escape me?
Come 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!

ALBERICH
How can I catch
this bashful fish in flight?
Wait, false one!

WELLGUNDE
Hey, beloved!
Don't you hear me?

ALBERICH
Is it me you're calling?

WELLGUNDE
Take my advice:
turn to me
and do not heed Woglinde.

ALBERICH
Far 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 enamoured
and longing for love,
let's see, my handsome,
what you look like!
Ugh, you hairy
humpbacked horror!
Swarthy, scaly,
sulphurous 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!

ALBERICH
Perfidious 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
Why wrangle, gnome?
So soon disheartened?
You've courted two:
if you asked the third,
blissful balm
she'd bestow on you!

ALBERICH
A sweet song
sounds in my ear.
How good that there is more
than one of you!
From so many there must be one I'd please:
one alone might not choose me.
If I'm to belive you,
come down below!

FLOSSHILDE
How stupid you are,
silly sisters!
Don't you think him handsome?

ALBERICH
Stupid and ugly
I must think them
since I saw you, the fairest.

FLOSSHILDE
O sing on that song
so sweet and fine;
how irresistibly it tempts my ear!

ALBERICH
My heart hammers,
shivers and shrivels,
in pleasure at such pretty praises.

FLOSSHILDE
How your grace
rejoices my eyes,
and your gentle smile
refreshes my spirit!

Dearest of men!

ALBERICH
Sweetest of maids!

FLOSSHILDE
Would you but favour me!

ALBERICH
I'd hold you forever!

FLOSSHILDE
Your piercing gaze,
your bristly beard,
o might I see and clasp it always!
Might the stiff curls
of your wiry hair
flow round Flosshilde for ever!
O might I,
mute and amazed, see and hear
only your toad-like form,
your croaking voice!

ALBERICH
Do you mock me in your malice?

FLOSSHILDE
How justly at the end of the sonf!

ALBERICH
Alas! Alack!
Woe, o woe is me!
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 RHINEMAIDENS
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 seize 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!

ALBERICH
If this fist could seize one!...

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 RHINEMAIDENS
Heiajaheia!
Heiajaheia!
Wallalalalala leiajahei!
Rhinegold!
Rhinegold!
Dazzling delight,
how brightly and bravely you laugh!
Your gleaming glow
spreads a glorious light!
Heiajahei!
Heiajaheia!
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!
Heiajaheia!
Wallalaleia heiajahei!

ALBERICH
What is it, glossy ones,
that so gleams and glistens there?

THE THREE RHINEMAIDENS
Whence come you then, uncouth one,
that you have never heard of the Rhinegold?

WELLGUNDE
Does the gnome know nothing
of the eyes of gold
ehich 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 leialalai!
Wallalalala leiajahei!

ALBERICH
Does the gold serve
only for your water games?
That would be little use to me!

WOGLINDE
He would not scorn
the gold's splendour
if he were aware of all its wonders.

WELLGUNDE
He who from the Rhinegold
fashioned the ring
that would confer on him immensurable might
could win the world's wealth
for his own.

FLOSSHILDE
Father said so,
and ordered us
to guard
the gleaming treasure skilfully
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 given 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
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 sulphurous 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 come, beloved, laugh with us!
Heiajaheia! Heiajaheia!
Wallalalala leiajahei!

ALBERICH
The world's wealth
Icould win for mine through you?
If I cannot extort love,
then by cunning can I attain pleasure?

Mock on, then!
The Nibelung nears your toy!

DIE DREI MÄDCHEN
Heia! Heia! Heia jahei!
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
Stop, thief!

WELLGUNDE
Rescue the gold!

WOGLINDE UND WELLGUNDE
Help! Help!

THE THREE RHINEMAIDENS
Woe! Woe!

Source: http://www.rwagner.net/libretti/rheingold/e-rhein-s1.html