In returning now to the adventures of Siegfried there is little more
to be described except the finale of an opera. Siegfried, having passed
unharmed through the fire, wakes Brynhild and goes through all the
fancies and ecstasies of love at first sight in a duet which ends with
an apostrophe to "leuchtende Liebe, lachender Tod!", which has been
romantically translated into "Love that illumines, laughing at Death,"
whereas it really identifies enlightening love and laughing death as
involving each other so closely as to be usually one and the same thing.