Quando me'n vò soletta per la via,
La gente sosta e mira
E la bellezza mia tutta ricerca in me,
ricerca in me Da capo a pie' ...
Ed assaporo allor la bramosia sottil che da
gl'occhi traspira e dai palesi vezzi intender sa
Alle occulte beltà.
Cosi l’effluvio del desio tutta m'aggira,
felice mi fa, felice me fa!
E tu che sai, che memori e ti struggi
Da me tanto rifuggi?
So ben: le angoscie tue non le vuoi dir,
non le vuoi dir so ben
Ma ti senti morir!
When I walk alone in the street
People stop and stare at me
And everyone looks at my beauty,
Looks at me,
From head to foot...
And then I relish the sly yearning
which escapes from their eyes
and which is able to perceive
my most hidden beauties.
Thus the scent of desire is all around me,
and it makes me happy, makes me happy!
And you who know, who remember and yearn
you shrink from me?
I know it very well:
you do not want to express your anguish,
I know so well that you do not want to express it
but you feel as if you are dying!
it's more than that.
It reminds me an encapsulated time of my life
and the last couples of decades in a pursue of self-confidence.
the text (and the music) shows what it is a characteristic
of the personality of a person that i think everyone has and feel;
the need of feeling that you are attractive,
that you can feel the "scent of desire..all around you" as Musetta sings,
because that means that you are alive and living life,
not just passing by,
not just waiting for something to happen,
just living.
