Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön

"Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön" (This image is enchantingly lovely) is an aria from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's 1791 opera The Magic Flute. The aria takes place in act 1, scene 1, of the opera. Prince Tamino has just been presented by the Three Ladies with an image of the princess Pamina, and falls instantly in love with her.

The words of "Dies Bildnis" were written by Emanuel Schikaneder, a leading man of the theater in Vienna in Mozart's time, who wrote the libretto of the opera as well as running the troupe that premiered it and playing the role of Papageno. There are fourteen lines of poetry, which Peter Branscombe described as "a very tolerable sonnet."

Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön,
wie noch kein Auge je gesehn.
Ich fühl' es, wie dies Götterbild
mein Herz mit neuer Regung füllt.

Dies Etwas kann ich zwar nicht nennen,
doch fühl' ich's hier wie Feuer brennen;
soll die Empfindung Liebe sein?
Ja, ja, die Liebe ist's allein.

O wenn ich sie nur finden könnte!
O wenn sie doch schon vor mir stünde!
ich würde, würde, warm und rein –

Was würde ich? Ich würde sie voll Entzücken
an diesen heißen Busen drücken,
und ewig wäre sie dann mein.

This image is enchantingly lovely,
Like no eye has ever beheld!
I feel it as this divine picture,
Fills my heart with new emotion.

I cannot name my feeling,
Though I feel it burn like fire within me,
Could this feeling be love?
Yes! Yes! It is love alone.

Oh, if only I could find her,
If only she were standing before me,
I would, I would, with warmth and honor ...

What would I do? Full of rapture,
I would press her to this glowing bosom,
And then she would be mine forever!

The metre is iambic tetrameter, which is the metre Schikaneder used throughout most of The Magic Flute. The stanzaic form and rhyme scheme involve two quatrains followed by two rhymed tercets, thus: [AABB] [CCDD] [EEF] [GGF].

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Wikipedia