The Sonorous Island (1771) - Page 19

No longer have a place

Through our deeds:

Agree

That we sink them all to the

Bottom.

Célénie expects from you,

That one makes her come out

Of the seraglio,

That the Prince and his love

Near her here act like a failure

original: "fasse chou blanc" — literally "make a white cabbage", meaning a failure or a wash..

P I A N O.

That is enough, Zerbin, I esteem
Your procedures more than your verses:
Attach yourself a little more to the rhyme,
I thought I saw some that are all wrong.
But let us move on: to Melophanie
I run to sing these two beautiful airs,
Count on it, to serve Célénie,
That she will set in motion a thousand various springs.

A decorative horizontal divider consists of parallel lines ending in ornate scrollwork.

SCENE II.

Z E R B I N.

He has left now. I believe it is appropriate
to make a small invocation to love here.

AIR: Of the Hanged Men.

God of love, without great work,
You can remove her from the seraglio,
Without breaking door or wall:
You can ensure that his flock
Is no longer with... the gear
That one shuts up in this fold.

By heaven, one must admit that the rhyme is quite
fickle: I am currently rhyming like an echo;
and just now when I needed it... But I hear
noise in the seraglio. Let us return to give an
account of our commission.