TURANDOT
Still in the time all can recall,
there was alarm, terror, [bad word] of arms!
The Kingdom defeated! defeated!
And Lo-u-ling, my ancestress,
dragged off by a man,
like you, like you, stranger,
there in the horrid night,
where her sweet voice was stilled!

THE CROWD
She’s slept for centuries
in her huge tomb!

TURANDOT
O you Princess,
with your long caravans
from every part of the world, [bad word] her to try your fate,
in you I avenge
that purity, that cry,
and that death!
No one will ever posses me!
The horror of her assassin
is still vivid in my heart!
No, no one will ever possess me!
Ah, in me is reborn the pride
of such purity!
Stranger, do not tempt Fate!
The enigmas are three,
but death is one!

THE UNKNONW PRINCE
No, no! The enigmas are three,
and life is one!

THE CROWD
Offer the supreme test
to the foreign Prince,
O Turandot! Turandot!
(The [bad word] blare. Silence. Turandot asks the first riddle.)