Voi che sapete (from Le Nozze di Figaro, K.492)

Based on a revolutionary play by Beaumarchais, in which the servants outwit and humiliate their noble master, Le Nozze di Figaro (“The Marriage of Figaro”) was first performed, against all the political odds, in Vienna in 1786. The action takes place in Count Almaviva’s castle near Seville, where Figaro works as his valet and Susanna as the Countess’s maid. Cherubino is employed in the same castle as a page - a boy young enough for the part to be awarded by Mozart to a mezzo-soprano and yet old enough to fall for every woman he sees. His passionate and not entirely innocent little aria “Voi che sapete” is addressed to the Countess, with whom he believes himself in love, and accompanied on the guitar by Susanna, whom he quite fancies too.

Voi che sapete

Che cosa è amor,

Donne, vedete

S’io l’ho nel cor.

Quello ch’io provo

Vi ridirò

É per me nuovo,

Capir nol so.

Sento un affetto

Pien di desir

Ch’ora è diletto,

Ch’ora è martir.

Gelo, e poi sento

L’alma avvampar,

E in un momento

Torno e gelar.

Ricerco un bene

Fuori de me,

Non so chi’l tiene,

Non so cos’è.

Sospiro e gemo

Senza voler,

Palpito e tremo

Senza saper,

Non trovo pace

Notte né di:

Ma pur mi piace

Languir così.

Voi che sapete

Che cosa è amor,

Donne, vedete

S’io l’ho nel cor.

You who know

What love is all about,

Tell me, ladies,

What’s in my heart.

I’ll try to describe

My feelings for you,

But they’re so new,

I can’t understand them.

Sometimes I feel

A strange longing

That brings happiness

Or despair.

I freeze, and then

My soul’s on fir,

And a moment later

I’m freeziing again.

I’m seekiing a pleasure

That’s beyond me,

I don’t know where to find it,

Or even what it is.

I sigh and I moan

Without meaning to,

And I shake and tremble

Without knowing why.

I can find no peace

either night or day,

Yet I’ve come to enjoy

My suffering.

You who know

What love is all about,

Tell me, ladies,

What’s in my heart.

(Translation by Judyth Schaubhut Smith)