[Aida:]
Take me in my dreams recurring
Cheerful as a childhood dance
Into one more taste of freedom
One more longing backward glance
In the sway of somber music
I shall never, never understand
Let me slip into the sweeter
Chorus of that other land
The gods love Nubia, the beautiful, the golden
The radiant, the fertile, the gentle and the blessed
The pain of Nubia is only for the moment
The desolate, the suffering
The plundered, the oppressed
[Nehebka:]
The gods love Nubia, their glorious creation
Its songs roll sweetly across the harvest plain
[Nehebka & Aida together:]
The tears of Nubia, a passing aberration
They wash into the river and are never cried again
[Nehebka, Aida, Mereb, and Nubian Woman together:]
The gods love Nubia, we have to keep believing
The scattered and divided, we are still its heart
[Aida:]
The fall of Nubia, ephemeral and fleeting
The spirit always burning though the flesh is torn apart
[All:]
The fall of Nubia
Ephemeral and fleeting
The spirit always burning
Though the flesh is torn apart
Take me in my dreams recurring
Cheerful as a childhood dance
Into one more taste of freedom
One more longing backward glance
The gods love Nubia, the beautiful, the golden
The radiant, the fertile, the gentle and the blessed
The pain of Nubia is only for the moment
The desolate, the suffering
The plundered, the oppressed
The gods love Nubia
We have to keep believing
Though scattered and divided we are still its heart
The fall of Nubia ephemeral and fleeting the spirit always
Burning though the flesh is torn apart
The spirit always burning though the flesh is torn apart
[Aida:]
Apart
[All:]
Take me in my dreams recurring
One more longing backward glance
END OF ACT ONE