喜樂的心乃是良藥

English words, Adrian Ross. Music, Franz  1907.

[Originally from Die lustige Witwe, 1905: words, Victor Len & Leo Smith]

VILIA

1. There once was a Vilia, a witch of the wood,

A hunter beheld her alone as she stood,

The spell of her beauty upon him was laid;

He looked and he longed for the magical maid!

For a sudden tremor ran

Right through the love-bewildered man,

And he sighed as a hapless lover can:

CHORUS:

"Vilia, O Vilia! The witch of the wood!

Would I not die for you, dear, if I could ?

Vilia, O Vilia, my love and my bride!"

Softly and sadly he sighed.

2. The wood-maiden smiled,

and no answer she gave,

But beckoned him into the shade of the cave;

He never had known such a rapturous bliss,

No maiden of mortals so sweetly can kiss!

As before her feet he lay,

She vanished in the wood away,

And he called vainly till his dying day:

 CHORUS

Sadly he sighed, " Vilia! "