This melancholy song is especially reminiscent of the plaintive, reproachful tenor arias "Sprito gentil" from La Favorita and "Fra poco a me ricovero" from Lucia di Lammermoor. The very melodic, fairly simple piano introduction introduces the main vocal melody, as in those arias, and the tone is much the same, a lover reproaching a woman whom he believes unfaithful. The title translates as "The Fatal Love."

The first verse follows the melody in a fairly straightforward manner. "More than even angels cannot love, I loved you in my madness. I became one with your psirit, I leaved in your breath. But a heart that does not beat, a vow without faith, a laugh without tears, woman, you gave me."

The vocal line becomes more passionate as the singer declares "addio, " (farewell), and then returns to the previous melody, "The tomb is far away that will receive this corpse. The traces of my skeleton will stay to lament. The angel you were, and the demon of my past days." The singer again repeats "addio, " and then starts an almost obsessive repetition of "t'amo" "I love you, " as he sings, "'I love you, ' you said to a wretched man, and he died of it. 'I love you, ' you said, and the unhappy man died."

The singer here has a challenge in interpreting the repeated "t'amo, " to make each one meaningful, whether by making each different, expressing different feelings each time he remembers, or by keeping each one the same, enhancing the obsessiveness of it.

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