Written for and performed by Bach's Collegium Musicum, at Zimmerman's Coffee House in Leipzig. The libretto (text) was penned by Bach's frequent collaborator, Christian Friedrich Henrici.
- Narrator (Recitative)
- Be quiet, stop chattering, and pay attention to what's taking place: here comes Herr Schlendrian with his daughter Lieschen; he's growling like a honey bear. Hear for yourselves, what she has done to him!
- Schlendrian (Aria)
- Don't one's children cause one endless trials & tribulations! What I say each day to my daughter Lieschen falls on stony ground.
- Schlendrian (Aria)
- You wicked child, you disobedient girl, oh!
- When will I get my way? Give up coffee!
- Lieschen (Aria)
- Father, don't be so severe!
- If I can't drink my bowl of coffee three times daily, then in my torment I will shrivel up like a piece of roast goat.
- Lieschen
- Mm! how sweet the coffee tastes,
- more delicious than a thousand kisses, mellower than muscatel wine.
- Coffee, coffee I must have, and if someone wishes to give me a treat, ah, then pour me out some coffee!
- Schlendrian (Recitative)
- If you don't give up drinking coffee then you shan't go to any wedding feast, nor go out walking.
- Oh! when will I get my way? Give up coffee!
- Lieschen
- Oh well! Just leave me my coffee!
- Schlendrian
- Now I've got the little minx! I won't get you a whalebone skirt in the latest fashion.
- Lieschen
- I can easily live with that.
- Schlendrian
- You're not to stand at the window and watch people pass by!
- Lieschen
- That as well, only I beg of you, leave me my coffee!
- Schlendrian
- Furthermore, you shan't be getting any silver or gold ribbon for your bonnet from me!
- Lieschen
- Yes, yes! only leave me to my pleasure!
- Schlendrian
- You disobedient Lieschen you, so you go along with it all!
- Schlendrian (Aria)
- Hard-hearted girls are not so easily won over.
- Yet if one finds their weak spot, ah! then one comes away successful.
- Schlendrian (Recitative)
- Now take heed what your father says!
- Lieschen
- In everything but the coffee.
- Schlendrian
- Well then, you'll have to resign yourself to never taking a husband.
- Lieschen
- Oh yes! Father, a husband!
- Schlendrian
- I swear it won't happen.
- Lieschen
- Until I can forgo coffee?
- From now on, coffee, remain forever untouched! Father, listen, I won't drink any.
- Schlendrian
- Then you shall have a husband at last!
- Lieschen (Aria)
- Today even dear father, see to it! Oh, a husband!
- Really, that suits me splendidly!
- If it could only happen soon that at last, before I go to bed, instead of coffee I were to get a proper lover!
- Narrator (Aria)
- Old Schlendrian goes off to see if he can find a husband forthwith for his daughter Lieschen;
- but Lieschen secretly lets it be known:
- no suitor is to come to my house unless he promises me, and it is also written into the marriage contract,
- that I will be permitted to make myself coffee whenever I want.
- Trio
- A cat won't stop from catching mice, and maidens remain faithful to their coffee.
- The mother holds her coffee dear.
- The grandmother drank it also.
- Who can thus rebuke the daughters?
(Translation found on Wikisource, and assumed to be public domain)
