The Wendish Research Exchange

A. 117. The Coachman and Son-in-law

mersiowsky - 5-12-2014 at 07:23 PM

(From:Lohsa)
Translated by Ed Bernthal

Once there were two castles.
They had strong stone walls.

Both had stone walls from the bottom up.
Both had stone walls up to the top.

In one there lived the daughter of the nobleman.
The other one was the court yard of the coachman.

The coachman said to the girl:
‘O girl, you have to be mine.’

“No, you don’t love me, don’t love me,
You gipsy, ugly and black.”

‘Girl, don’t speak so haughtily.
Your word surely does betray you.’

‘Before the clock strikes twelve,
Come to me in the stable.’

Before the clock struck twelve
The girl knocked on the door.

“Get up now, my coachman
And open the door of the stable to me.”

The coachman got out of his bed,
And greeted her with his right hand.

‘Take off your fur coat and your apron
And lie down in the bed with me.’

The girl took off her fur coat and her apron
And cried bitterly.

‘Just be quiet and don’t cry my girl,
For you have the coachman as your sweetheart.’

The mother went around the courtyard
To wake up the servants.

“Coachman, my coachman, get up,
And take the horses out to graze.”

“All the other horses are already out grazing.
Ours are still at home in the straw.”

‘Ours are better off in the straw
Than the others out in the grass.’

The mother called a second time,
“Get up, my coachman, get up.’

“Coachman, my coachman, get up,
And take the horses out to the field.”

“All the other horses are already in the field.
Ours are still at home in the stable.”

‘Ours do in a half a day
What the others can’t do in a whole day.’

The mother called for the third time,
“Get up, my coachman, get up.”

‘Don’t call, don’t call your coachman anymore.
Now I am going to be your son-in-law.’

“You are a rogue, a mischievous rogue,
And you are a gipsy.”

“Although my daughter could marry a king,
Now I will give her to a coachman.”



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