People of Peking!
This is the law:
Turandot the pure will be the bride
of the man of royal blood,
who solves the three enigmas that she shall ask him.
But whoever faces the trial and is defeated
must bow to the axe his haughty head!
The Prince of Persia
had Fate against him:
when the moon rises,
at the executioner's hand he must die!
He must die! We want the executioner! Quickly! Death!
The punishment! If you don't appear, we'll waken you!
Pu-Tin-Pao! To the palace!
To the palace!
Stand back, dogs!
Ah, cruel ones!
Stop, by Heaven!
Oh, my mother!
My babies!
Stop cruel ones! Be human! Don't hurt us!
Who can help me lift him up?
This old man has fallen! Have pity! Pity!
Father! My Father!
Oh, Father, yes, I've found you!
Look at me! It's not a dream!
- My Lord! -Father!
Listen to me! Father! It is I!
And may grief itself be blessed,
for this joy given us by a pitying God.
Oh, my son! You! Alive?
Silence!
The usurper of your crown seeks me and pursues you!
There's no hiding place for us in the world, Father!
I sought you, my son, and I thought you were dead!
I wept for you, Father; now I kiss these sainted hands!
Oh, my son, found again!
Here are the executioner's men!
To the death!
When the battle was lost,
an old King without realm, fleeing,
I heard a voice saying to me:
"Come with me, I'll be your guide..."
It was Lin]!
Bless her!
When I fell exhausted,
she would dry my tears,
and she begged for me!
Lin, who are you'?
I'm nothing...
- A slave, my Lord. -Hone the blade!
Why did you share such anguish?
Because, one day,
in the palace,
you smiled at me.
You smiled at me.
Grind the Whetstone! Grind it!
Oil it, sharpen it, let the blade gleam! Splatter fire and blood!
Work is never dull for us
where Turandot reigns!
Where Turandot reigns!
Sweet lovers, come forward! Come!
With our hooks and our knives
we're ready to embroider your skins!
We're ready to embroider your skins!
Whoever strikes that gong
will see her appear!
Will see her appear!
White as jade,
cold as that sword,
is the beautiful Turandot!
Is the beautiful Turandot!
When the gong clangs, the executioner is happy!
Love is in vain if luck isn't there!
The enigmas are three, but death is one!
- Why does the moon delay? -Wan face!
Show yourself in the sky! Quickly! Come! Rise!
Oh, lopped off head!
Oh, mean one!
Come!
Bloodless!
Taciturn'.!
Pale lover of the dead!
How the cemeteries await
your funereal light!
Come quickly!
Over there a glimmer
is spreading out in the sky
its deathly light!
The moon has risen! Pu-Tin-Pao!
The moon has risen!
There, on the eastern mountains,
the stork sang.
But April blossomed no more.
And that snow didn't thaw.
From the desert to the sea can't you hear
a thousand voices sighing?
Princess, come down to me!
All will blossom again!
All will be resplendent! Ah!
Oh, the youth!
Mercy! Mercy!
How steady is his step!
How sweet is his face!
Ecstasy is in his eyes!
Joy is in his eyes!
Ah, mercy on him!
Have pity on him!
Pity! Princess!
Mercy! Pity!
Let me see you,
and curse you!
Cruel one!
Princess!
Have mercy!
Oh, divine beauty! Oh, marvel!
Oh, dream!
Oh, great Kouang-tze!
May the dying man's spirit
come to you!
My son, what are you doing?
Can't you feel it?
Her perfume is in the air! It's in my spirit!
- You're lost! -Oh, divine beauty! Oh, marvel!
I'm suffering, Father, suffering!
No! No! Let me clasp you!
Lin, you speak to him'.!
There's no safety here.
Take his hand in your hand!
My Lord, let's go far away!
Life is awaiting us there!
This is life, Father!
- Life is awaiting us there! -I'm suffering, Father, suffering!
- There's no safety here! -Life is here, Father!
Turandot!
Do you want to die thus?
To conquer, Father, in her beauty!
- Do you want to end thus? -To conquer gloriously in her beauty!
Wait! What are you doing? Stop! What do you want?
Go away! This is the door to the great butcher's shop!
Madman, go away!
They garrotte you! impale you! Cut your throat! Skin you alive!
Knife and pollard you! Saw you up and disembowel you!
Quickly, hastily, go back to your country to die!
But not here! Go away, go away!
- Madman, go away! -Let me by!
- Here the graveyards are all full! -Our madmen are enough!
We don't want any more foreign madmen!
Run off, or else your funeral will be prepared for you!
Let me by!
For a princess?
What's that?
A female with a crown on her head!
- And a cloak with some fringe! -But if you strip her naked...
- She's flesh! -She's raw flesh!
It's inedible stuff!
- Ha! Ha! Ha! -Let me by!
Give up women! Or else take a hundred wives!
After all, the most sublime Turandot in the world
has a face, two arms and two legs, yes!
Lovely, imperial, yes, yes, lovely, but still only legs!
With a hundred wives, you fool, you'll have a surplus of legs!
Two hundred arms, and a hundred soft bosoms.
Scattered in a hundred beds! In a hundred beds!
- In a hundred beds! Ha! Ha! -Let me by!
Madman, go away! Go!
Hola, silence!
Who's talking down there?
Silence!
This is the sweet hour for sleeping!
Sleep is grazing her eyes! It's scenting the darkness around her!
Go away, chattering females!
Watch out for the gong!
It is scenting the darkness around her!
- Look at him, Pong! -Look at him, Ping!
Look at him, Pang!
He's gone deaf! He's dazed! He's bedazzled!
He's not listening to them, alas!
Come! Let's all three speak to him!
- A night without a bit of light... -A chimney's blackened throat...
They are still clearer than Turandot's enigmas!
- Iron, bronze, walls, rocks... -Your obstinate hard head...
They are less hard than Turandot's enigmas!
- So then, go! Bid us all goodbye! -Scale the mounts, ford the streams!
And stay well away from Turandot's enigmas!
Don't hesitate!
If you call, she'll appear!
She, who makes us dream though we are dead!
Make her speak!
Let us hear her!
I love her! I love her!
No! No!
I only love her!
You love her? Who? Turandot? Ha! Ha! Ha!
- Oh, mad boy! -Turandot doesn't exist!
Only the nothingness exists in which you annihilate yourself!
Turandot doesn't exist!
Turandot! Like all those blockheads who went before you!
Man! God! The Ego! Peoples!
- Pu-Tin-Pao! -Only the Tao exists!
I want the triumph!
I want love!
Fool! There's love!
That's how the moon will kiss your face!
Oh, son, do you want me then,
to drag along through the world my tortured age, all alone?
Help!
Isn't there any human voice
that can move your fierce heart?
My Lord, listen!
Ah, listen!
Lil': can bear it no more!
My heart is breaking!
Alas!
How long have I travelled
with your name in my soul!
With your name on my lips!
But if your fate
is decided tomorrow,
we'll die
on the road to exile!
And he will lose his son!
And I the shadow of a smile!
Lil': can bear it no more!
Ah, have pity!
Don't weep, Lin.
If one far-off day,
I smiled at you,
then for that smile,
my sweet girl,
listen to me:
Your master
tomorrow will be perhaps
all alone in the world!
Don't leave him!
Take him away with you!
We'll die on the road to exile!
We'll die!
Soften for him the road to exile!
This!
Oh, my poor Lin]!
This is what he who smiles no more
asks of your unfailing little heart!
Ah, for the last time!
Overcome this horrible spell!
Life is so beautiful!
- Have pity on me! -Have pity on Lin]!
- Have pity on me! -Life is so beautiful!
- Pity! -I'm the one who asks for pity!
- Seize him! -I can't listen to anyone any more!
- As if your torment weren't enough! -I see her radiant face!
- Carry him away! -I can't tear myself from you!
She calls me! She is there! I ask your pardon!
- Have pity! -Don't make me die!
- You are mad! -I ask your pardon!
- As one that smiles again! -Life is beautiful!
Life is beautiful!
Come, a last effort: Let's carry him away!
- Leave me! I've suffered enough! -You're treading on a poor heart!
Glory awaits me there!
- Nobody has ever won, nobody! -I'm following my destiny!
- The sword has struck them all! -I'm in a fever!
We're already digging your grave,
you who would challenge love!
You who would challenge love!
In the darkness, alas, your destiny is written!
Every fibre of my soul has a voice that shouts:
Let him go! There's no use shouting in Sanskrit, Chinese or Mongolian!
When the gong clangs, death is happy!
Hola, Pang! Hola, Pong!
Since the fatal gong is waking the palace and waking the city,
let's be ready for any event!
If the stranger wins, for the wedding, and if he loses:
for the burial.
- I'll prepare the wedding! -And I, the funeral!
The red holiday lanterns!
The white mourning lanterns!
Incense and sacrifices...
- Gilded coins of paper! -Tea, sugar, nutmeg!
- The fine scarlet palanquin! -The great, well-made bier!
- And singing priests! -And moaning priests!
And all the rest, as the ceremony requires...
in its infinity of details!
Oh, China! Oh, China!
You who now starts and leaps restlessly.
How happily you used to sleep,
filled with your seventy thousand centuries!
Everything was going along
according to the world's ancient law.
Then Turandot was born...
And for years now our holidays
have become joys of this order:
- Three strokes of the gong... -Three enigmas...
And off with their heads!
- The Year of the Mouse, six! -The Year of the Dog, eight.
And during the current year the terrible year of the Tiger
we have reached thirteen already!
Counting the one about to go!
What work!
What boredom! What work!
What have we become? We're the executioner's ministers!
I have a house in Honan,
with a little lake of blue,
all surrounded with bamboo.
And here I am,
wasting my life,
wearing out my brain over the sacred books...
When I could go back there
to my little blue lake
all surrounded with bamboo!
I have forests, near Tsiang, than which none are lovelier.
I have a garden near Kin], that I left,
to come here!
That I'll never see again!
And here we are!
Wearing out our brains over the sacred books!
And I could go back to Tsiang...
And I could go back there...
And I could go back to Kin]...
O world,
filled with mad lovers!
Filled with mad lovers!
Do you remember the regal Prince of Samarkand?
He made his application, and with joy she sent him to the executioner!
Oil and sharpen the blade
till it splatters fire and blood!
Till it splatters fire and blood!
And the bejewelled Indian Sagarka, with earrings like little bells?
He sought love, and was beheaded!
- And the Burmese? -And the Prince of the Kirhiz?
Killed! Killed!
And the tartar whose bow was six cubits high?
Who wore rich skins?
Executed!
Beheaded!
Farewell to love! Farewell to our race!
Farewell, divine lineage!
And China comes to an end!
Farewell, divine lineage!
- Should the night of surrender come -I will shake up for her...
...the soft feathers!
I want to perfume her chamber!
I'll lead the bridal pair,
holding the lamp!
And then the three of us in the garden
will sing of love until morning.
Like this:
No longer is there in China, luckily for us,
a woman who refuses love!
There was only one
and she who was ice is now flame and ardour!
Princess, your empire extends from the Tse-Kiang to the Yangtze!
But there, within the filmy hangings,
there is a husband who reigns over you.
You smell already the aroma of kisses.
Already you're a woman filled with languor!
Everything whispers in the garden,
and golden bells tinkle.
They whisper amorous words
as the flowers are pearled with dew!
Glory to the lovely, exposed body
that now knows the mystery it ignored!
Glory to their ecstasy and to love which has conquered,
and which has given peace to China again!
We're dreaming while the palace is swarming with lanterns, soldiers!
You hear the great drum of the green temple!
Already the infinite clogs of Peking are clattering!
You hear the trumpets! Peace, indeed!
The ceremony is beginning!
Let's go and enjoy this umpteenth torture!
Grave, enormous and imposing,
with the sealed mystery of the enigmas,
the sages already come forward.
The sages already come forward.
Here's Ping! Here's Pong! Here's Pang!
Ten thousand years of life
to our Emperor!
To our Emperor!
Glory to you!
A ghastly oath forces me
to keep faith with the horrid pact.
And the holy sceptre I clasp
is steeped in blood!
Enough of this blood!
Young man, go!
Son of Heaven!
I ask to undergo the trial!
Let me die without bearing the burden
of your young life.
Son of Heaven!
I ask to undergo the trial!
Don't fill with horror again
the palace, the world!
Son of Heaven!
I ask to undergo the trial!
Stranger, intoxicated with death! So be it!
Let your destiny be fulfilled!
Ten thousand years of life
to our Emperor!
People of Peking!
This is the law:
Turandot, the pure, will be the bride
of the man of royal blood, who solves the enigmas
that she asks him.
But whoever faces the trial and is defeated
must bow to the axe his haughty head!
From the desert to the sea
can't you hear a thousand voices sigh?
Princess, come to me!
And all will be radiant!
In this palace,
thousands of years ago,
a desperate cry rang out.
And that cry,
after many generations,
took shelter in my spirit!
Princess Lo-u-Ling!
Sweet, serene ancestress,
who ruled in your dark silence,
in pure joy,
and challenged, sure and unyielding,
the harsh mastery of others, you live in me today!
It was when the King of the Tartars unfurled his seven flags!
Still in the time all can recall,
there was alarm, terror, the rumble of arms!
The kingdom defeated! Defeated!
And Lo-u-Ling,
my ancestress, dragged off,
by a man like you!
Like you, stranger!
There in the horrid night,
where her sweet voice was stilled!
She's slept for centuries
in her huge tomb!
Oh, you princes, with your long caravans
from every part of the world, who come
to try your fate:
In you I avenge,
I avenge that purity,
that cry and that death!
No one will ever possess me!
The horror of her assassin
is still vivid in my heart!
No one will possess me!
Ah, in me is reborn
the pride of such purity!
Stranger, do not tempt Fate!
The enigmas are three,
but death is one!
The enigmas are three,
but life is one!
Offer the supreme test to the foreign Prince!
Oh, Turandot!
Stranger, listen!
In the gloomy night
an iridescent phantom flies.
It spreads its wings and rises
over infinite, black humanity!
Everybody invokes it!
Everybody implores it!
But the phantom disappears at dawn,
to be reborn in the heart!
And every night it's born,
and every day it dies!
Yes, it's reborn!
It's reborn and exulting,
it carries me with it.
Turandot!
It is Hope!
Hope!
Yes! Hope which always deludes!
It flickers like a flame,
and is not flame!
Sometimes it rages!
It's feverish, impetuous, burning!
But idleness changes it to languor!
If you're defeated or lost, it grows cold!
If you dream of winning, it flames!
Its voice is faint, but if you listen,
it gleams as bright as the sunset!
Don't destroy yourself, stranger!
Your life is at stake! Speak!
Don't destroy yourself, stranger! Speak!
Your love is at stake!
Yes, Princess!
It flames and languishes, too!
If you look at me,
in my veins:
It's blood!
Blood!
Courage, solver of enigmas!
Lash those wretches!
Ice that sets you on fire
and from your fire is more frosty!
White, and dark!
If she sets you free she makes you a slave!
If she accepts you as a slave she will make you a King!
Come, stranger! You're pale with fright!
And you know you are lost!
Come, stranger!
What is the frost that gives off fire?
My victory now
has given you to me!
My fire will thaw you:
Turandot!
Glory, Victor!
May life smile on you!
May love smile on you!
Ten thousand years to our Emperor!
The Light, the King of the World!
Son of Heaven!
August father!
Don't cast your daughter
into the stranger's arms!
The oath is sacred!
No, don't say it! Your daughter is sacred!
You cannot give me to him!
To him like a slave, ah no!
To die of shame!
Don't look at me like that! You, who mock my pride!
I shall not be yours!
No, I will not!
The oath is sacred!
No, don't look at me like that!
I'll not be yours!
He won, Princess!
He offered his life for you!
The oath is sacred!
Would you have me in your arms by force?
Reluctant and enraged?
No, haughty Princess!
I want you ardent...
...with love!
Bold, courageous man! Strong one!
You asked me three riddles,
and I solved all three!
I will propose only one to you:
You do not know my name!
Tell me my name!
Before dawn!
And at dawn,
I will die!
May Heaven will
that as the sun rises
you will be
my Son!
We prostrate ourselves at your feet,
the Light, the King of all the World!
The Light, the King of all the World!
For your wisdom, for your goodness,
we give ourselves to you,
happy in our humility!
Happy in our humility!
May our love rise to you!
Ten thousand years
to our Emperor!
To our Emperor!
To you, heir of Hien Wang, we cry:
Ten thousand years life
to our Emperor!
To our Emperor!
Hold high, high, the banners!
Glory to you!
Turandot commands thus:
"Tonight no one must sleep in Peking!"
No one must sleep!
Under the pain of death,
the name of the stranger must be revealed
before morning!
Under pain of death!
Tonight no one must sleep in Peking!
No one must sleep!
No one must sleep...
You too, Princess,
in your cold room,
look at the stars,
which tremble with love,
and with hope!
But my mystery is shut within me.
No one shall know my name!
No, no! I shall say it it on your mouth
when the daylight shines!
And my kiss will break the silence
that makes you mine!
No one will know his name...
and alas we must die!
Vanish, night!
Set, you stars!
At dawn I will win!
I will win!
- You who look at the stars! -Our life is in your power!
Did you hear the proclamation? In the streets of Peking, at every door.
Death knocks and cries: His name!
His name or his blood!
What do you want of me?
You say what you want!
Is it love you seek?
Well, take it!
Look! They're beautiful
in their shimmering veils!
Their lithe bodies...
All ecstasy and promises of stupendous passion!
What do you want? Wealth? All these treasures are for you!
- They shatter the night! -Blue fires!
- These gleaming gems! -Pale hyacinths!
The red flames of the rubies!
- Tear-drops of the stars! -Blue fires!
- They're yours! -Red flames!
No! No riches! No!
Do you seek glory? We will have you flee...
And you'll follow the stars afar towards fabulous empires!
Flee! Flee! Go far away!
Flee, go far away! And we will all be saved!
Come, dawn! Dissolve this nightmare!
Stranger, you don't know.
You don't know
what the cruel one is capable of.
You don't know the horrible tortures
China will invent if you stay and do not reveal your name.
The sleepless one does not forgive. We are lost!
It will be a horrible torture!
Death, little by little! Don't make us die!
Your prayers are in vain!
Your threats are in vain!
If the world should collapse, I want Turandot!
You won't have her. You will die before we do!
A curse on you! Speak!
Here's the name!
They don't know it!
You were talking to the old man and the girl last night.
- Let them go! -They know the secret!
- Where did you catch them? -Near the walls!
Princess!
Divine Princess!
The stranger's name
is closed within these silent mouths.
But we have instruments to wrench out those teeth.
And we have pincers to drag out that name!
You are pale, stranger!
Your fear
sees the pallor of dawn on my face!
- Those two don't know me. -We shall see!
Come, speak, old man!
I want him to speak!
The name!
The name you seek only I know!
Our lives are saved!
The nightmare has vanished!
You know nothing, slave!
I know his name...
My supreme pleasure
is to keep it secret and to have it for myself alone.
Have her tortured! Until she speaks! Until she dies!
You will pay for her tears! You will pay for her torments!
Seize him!
Lord, I won't speak!
- His name! -No!
- His name! -Your servant asks your pardon,
but she cannot obey!
- Why are you crying? -Let her go!
No!
I'm not crying now! They aren't hurting me!
Nobody's touching me! Harder!
But shut my mouth
so he can't hear me!
I can bear it no longer!
Speak! The name!
Let her go now!
I'd rather die!
Who gave your heart such strength?
Love, Princess!
Love?
Such love, secret
and unconfessed,
so great that these torments
are sweet for me,
because I make a gift of them
for my Lord.
Because, keeping silent,
I give him your love.
I give you to him, Princess, and I lose everything!
Even my impossible hope!
Bind me! Torture me!
Give me torments and pain!
The supreme gift of my love!
Wrest the secret from her!
- Call Pu-Tin-Pao! -No, curse you! Curse you!
The executioner!
Put her to torture!
Torture! The executioner! Make her speak!
I can bear it no longer! I'm afraid of myself!
Let me by!
Speak!
Yes, Princess, listen to me!
You, who are enclosed in ice,
conquered by such a flame,
you will love him too!
You will love him too!
Before the dawn,
I will wearily close my eyes,
so he can win again.
So he can win again.
And I'll never see him more!
Speak. Speak!
His name! His name!
Ah, you are dead!
Dead, my little Lin]!
Lin, Lin, get up!
Get up!
It is the bright hour for all awakening!
It's dawn, my Lin]!
Open your eyes, my dove!
Get up, old man! She's dead!
Horrible crime!
We will all pay for it!
The offended spirit
will take revenge!
Will take revenge!
Grieving shame, don't harm us!
Forgive us!
Lin, goodness'.!
Lin, sweetness!
We are walking together again!
Like this, your hand in mine!
I know well where you're going.
I will follow you
to rest near you
in the night that has no morning.
In the night that has no morning.
It has wakened inside me,
that old machine, my heart, and is tormenting me!
Lin, goodness, forgive'.!
Lin, goodness'.!
Lin, sweetness!
Sleep! Forget!
Lin, poetic spirit'.!
Princess of death!
Princess of ice!
From your tragic heaven,
come down to earth!
Raise that veil!
Look, cruel one,
at that purest blood
that was shed for you!
How dare you, stranger!
I am not human!
I am the daughter of Heaven! Free and pure!
You clasp my cold veil,
but my spirit is there, aloft!
Your spirit is on high!
But your body is near!
And with burning hands
I'll clasp the gold border of your starry cloak!
My trembling mouth
will be pressed on yours!
- Don't profane me! -To feel you alive!
- Stand back! -To feel you alive!
- Do not profane me! -Your iciness is a lie!
- No one will ever possess me! -I want you to be mine!
My ancestress's torment will not be repeated!
I want you to be mine!
Touch me not, stranger!
It's sacrilege!
Your kiss gives me eternity!
It's sacrilege!
What has become of me?
I'm lost!
My flower!
My morning flower!
My flower, I breath you in!
Your lily breasts!
They tremble against my chest!
Already I feel you faint with sweetness,
all white in your silver cloak!
How did you win?
You weep?
It's the dawn!
Dawn! Light and life!
- Turandot's sun has set! -It's dawn!
It's dawn!
And love is born with the sun!
No one must see me!
My glory...
...is ended!
- No! It has begun! -I am ashamed!
A miracle!
Don't seek a greater victory!
Go, stranger...
with you r mystery!
My mystery?
I no longer have one! You are mine!
You who tremble if I touch you, who pales if I kiss you!
Destroy me if you will.
My name and my life I give you together!
I am Calaf, son of Timur!
I know your name!
My glory is your embrace!
Listen! The trumpets blare!
My life is your kiss!
Lo, the hour has come!
It's the hour of the trial!
I don't fear it!
Calaf! Come with me before the people!
You have won!
Ten thousand years
to our Emperor!
August father,
I know the name of the stranger!
And his name is...
Love!
O Sun! Life! Eternity!
Love is the light of the world!
Our infinite happiness
laughs and sings in the sun!
Glory to you!