Steal Me Sweet Thief
From the opera "The Old Maid and the Thief". I sang this aria my whole youth and only now understand what this lonely middle-aged character was going through with the town narc with whom she is in love. She expresses so beautifully her fear of never being appreciated again as a woman in her life.
Sing by Leaf
What a curse for a woman is a timid man!
A week has gone by, he's had plenty of chances,
but he made no advances.
Miss Todd schemes and labors to get him some money,
she robs friends and neigbhours, the club and the church.
He takes all the money with a smile that entrances,
but still makes no advances.
The old woman sighs and makes languid eyes.
all the doors are wide open,
all the drawers are unlocked,
he neither seems pleased or shocked.
He eats and drinks and sleeps,
he talks of baseball and boxing,
but that is all!
What a curse for a woman is a timed man.
Steal me,
Oh steal me sweet thief,
for time's flight is stealing my youth,
and the cares of life steal fleeting time.
Steal me thief,
for life is brief and full of theft and strife,
and then with furtive step Death comes
and steals time and life,
Oh sweet thief! I pray, make me die,
before dark death steals her prey!
Steal my lips before they crumble to dust,
steal my heart before death must,
steal my cheeks before they're sunk and decayed,
steal my breath before it will fade,
steal my lips, steal my heart, steal my cheeks,
steal oh steal my breath,
and make me die before Death will steal her prey,
Oh steal me!!
For time's flight is stealing my youth.
叶子唱 2011年6月 于美国
