[DOCTOR TAMBOURRI, spoken]
Ah, look at how they've let this garden go

[COLONEL RICCI, spoken]
This is not Milan, Doctor

[FOSCA, spoken]
I think it's rather beautiful

[RICCI, spoken]
Captain Bachetti, would you lend my cousin your arm? I wish to have a word with the Doctor

[GIORGIO, spoken]
Of course

[FOSCA, spoken]
I know how to walk. My cousin treats me like a child

[GIORGIO]
All the while as we strolled, Clara-

[FOSCA, spoken]
I hope I didn't frighten you the other day

[GIORGIO, spoken]
No, not at all
(sung)
I could see you reading my letter
All the while as we strolled -

[FOSCA, spoken]
I'm not afraid of death. I rather think I'd welcome dying. It's being shut up in a coffin, covered by the earth, that I dread

[GIORGIO]
All I saw, all I knew
All that I could think of was you

(Clara enters, reading a letter.)

[CLARA]
All that I could think of was you
How ridiculous
To be looking at her
And be thinking of you
How could anyone
So unbeautiful
Stir my memory of you?

To feel a woman's touch
To touch a woman's hand
Reminded me how much I long to be with you
How long I've been without you near
And then to hear a woman's voice
To hold a woman's arm
To feel a woman's touch...
[GIORGIO, spoken]
These thoughts are bad for you. Surely if you are sick, you must realize that there is also the hope that you will get better

[FOSCA, spoken]
Hope in my case is in short supply
Uld somehow make one happy

[CLARA]
Perhaps it was the dress
The fragrance of her dress
The light perfume of silk
That's warm from being in the sun
That mingles with a woman's own perfume
The fragrance of a woman...

[GIORGIO, spoken]
There is no absolute happiness in anyone's life, Signora
The only happiness we can be certain of is love

[CLARA]
The garden filled with you-

[FOSCA, spoken]
Are you speaking of friendships?

[GIORGIO, spoken]
I'm speaking of a superior love
[CLARA]
And all that I could do
Because of you
Was talk of love

(Giorgio sings to Fosca as Clara continues to sing the letter)

[CLARA & GIORGIO]
Love that fills every waking moment
Love that grows every single day
Love that thinks everything is pure
Everything is beautiful
Everything is possible
Love that fuses two into one
Where we think the same thoughts

[GIORGIO]
Want the same things

[CLARA & GIORGIO]
Live as one

[GIORGIO]
Feel as one

[CLARA & GIORGIO]
Breathe as one

[CLARA]
Love that shuts away the world

[GIORGIO]
Love that shuts away the world

[CLARA]
That envelops my soul

[GIORGIO]
That envelops your soul

[CLARA]
That ennobles my life

[GIORGIO]
Your life

[CLARA & GIORGIO]
Love that floods
Every living moment
Love like

[CLARA]
-ours

[FOSCA, spoken]
Love like-?

[GIORGIO]
-like wine
An intoxication
A great blindness, if you will

(Fosca stumbles slightly; Giorgio goes to aid her, but she pulls herself away)

[FOSCA, spoken]
You can be incredibly cruel, Captain

[GIORGIO, spoken]
Cruel?

[FOSCA]
To speak to me of love

[GIORGIO, spoken]
Oh, forgive me! I didn't mean to-

[FOSCA]
To dangle words like
"Happiness"
"Beautiful"
"Superior"
You can't be that naive
You with all your books
Your taste, your sensitivity
I thought you'd understand
The others - well, they're all alike
Stupidity is their excuse
As ugliness is mine
But what is yours?

I've watched you from my window
I saw you on the day that you arrived
Perhaps it was the way you walked
The way you spoke to your men
I saw that you were different then
I saw that you were kind and good
I thought you understood

They hear drums
You hear music
As do I
Don't you see?
We're the same
We are different
You and I are different
They hear only drums

All the time I watched from my room
I would think of coming downstairs
Thinking we'd meet
Thinking you'd look at me
Thinking you'd be repelled by what you saw

Don't reject me
Don't deny me, Captain
Understand me, be my friend

They hear drums, we hear music
Be my friend...