I found strings consonant to my creations.

I was content; at peace I took delight

In my own work, success and glory -- also

In works and in successes of my friends,

My gentle comrades in the wondrous art.

No, never did I know the sting of envy!

O, never! -- neither even when Piccini

Knew how to charm the savage ears of Paris,

Nor when I got to hear for the first time

The initial harmonies of "Iphigenia"...

Who'd say that proud Salieri would in life

Be a repellent envier, a serpent

Trampled by people, gnawing sand and dust

In impotence? No one! And now -- I'll say it --

I am an envier. I envy; sorely,

Profoundly now I envy. -- Pray, o Heaven!

Where, where is rightness? when the sacred gift,

Immortal genius, comes not in reward

For fervent love, for total self-rejection,

For work and for exertion and for prayers,

But casts its light upon a madman's head,

An idle loafer's brow... O Mozart, Mozart!

(Enter Mozart.) Mozart

Aha! You saw me! Damn - and I was hoping

To treat you with an unexpected joke.

Salieri

You here! -- since long?

Mozart

Just now. I had

Something to show you; I was on my way,

But passing by an inn, all of a sudden

I heard a violin... My friend Salieri,

In your whole life you haven't heard anything