[Werther is madly in love with charlotte, his friends wife. To forget her, he has run away, but when he returns, he finds he is more in love than ever. Werther recites a favorite poem for charlotte, and at last realizes the fatal truth: Charlotte can never return his love.]
Pourquoi me reveiller, o souffle du printemps?
Sur mon front je sens tes caresses.
Et pourtant bien proche est le temps
Des orages et des tristesses.
Demain, dans le vallon, viendra le voyageur,
Se souvenant de ma gloire premiere,
Et ses yeax vainement chercheront ma splendeur:
Ils ne trouveront plus que deuil et que misere!
Helas! Pourquoi me reveiller, o souffle du printemps?>


[Translation:]

Why Do You Wake Me Now?

"Why do you wake me now, o sweetest breath of spring?
On my brow I sense your most gentle caresses,
yet how soon creeps on the time
filled with tempests and with distresses!
Tomorrow through the vale,the traveller will pass,
recalling all the glory of the past.
And in vain he will search for the bloom of my youth,
and nothing will he find but deep and endless sorrow."
Alas! Why do you wake me now, o sweetest breath of spring!