How would you say "young love" in Japanese? Would it be "若い愛" or "青春愛"?

Question

I know that the first is using young as an adjective for the word love while the second is referring to love between young people but I wanted to know which one is correct. Like if an older person saw a young couple acting all sweet, they would say something like "Ah, young love. How nice." Which word would be used in that context?

Is there another term that is more common or natural?

Answer 1

In a context where you want to say "ah how nice", people would normally say something like "いいね、青春だね". Literal translation seldom works when it comes to everyday idioms like this, so let's just remember this. What 青春 refers to is not limited to love, but we don't say 青春愛.

If you want a descriptive phrase, it's not 若い愛 but 若者の愛. Love itself cannot be young or old.