The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #10876   Message #2354674
Posted By: Jim Dixon
01-Jun-08 - 06:07 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Vilia / Vilja - Witch of the Wood
Subject: Lyr Add: VILIA
From 500 best-loved song lyrics By Ronald Herder, 1997:

VILIA
English words, Adrian Ross. Music, Franz Lehár, 1907.
[Originally from Die lustige Witwe, 1905: words, Victor Léon & Leo Smith]

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!"

[The Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music has the German: Vilja-Lied (Lied vom Waldmägdelein) aus der Operette "Die lustige Witwe", Text von Victor Léon und Leo Stein. Musik von Franz Lehár. Leipzig : Ludwig Doblinger, 1906.

[First Line: Es lebt' eine Vilja, ein Waldmagdelein
First Line of Chorus: Vilja, o Vilja, du Waldmagdelein]