(From Brischko)
Translated by Ed Bernthal

I have picked out a girl,
So lily white, rose red, lovely and nice.

She is like me, youthful and virtuous,
In charm and beauty wonderful and rich.

And were she the younger daughter in the house,
She would surely have to be mine.

But since she is a servant girl,
Her mother does not let her come out into the yard.

‘Now I may be poor, as God has ordained,
And also one not everyone loves and kisses!’

“So take, my maid girl, whoever you want.
The King or the Caeser you will not get.”

‘I will deny my worldly mind.
Into the cloister I will go.’

‘The first year I will be a child of God,
The second a most devout-minded young lady.”

‘I will associate there with God’s children,
And seat myself at the Lord’s table.’

‘And if I can’t be a child of God there,
I still will remain a virgin pure.’

“How are you going to stay a virgin pure
When in seven years you will let yourself be freed?”

‘And if in seven years when I will let myself be freed,
I will have remained a virgin pure.’

When the loved one heard this
He saddled his fast horse.

To Krostwitz he rode in a hurry,
To the blacksmith he rode fast as the wind.

“Fit shoes, master, for my horse,
Fit shoes on his four legs for him.”

“Don’t shoe him with fastened iron,
Don’t shoe him with hard steel.”

“Shoe him in front with pure silver,
Shoe him in back with fine pure gold.”

The master diligently shoed the horse.
The youth paid him enough money.

The youth paid him so much money
That the table bent under its weight.

He pulled out so many heavy dollars,
Also paid him with French gold.

The youth took over his horse,
The smith took in all of his money.

The youth rode out of the yard.
The smith kept watching him.

The smith kept watching him
And wanted to wish him all the best.

As the youth neared the cloister,
The cloister locked the youth out.

The youth knocked on the door
With his small fingers.

With his small fingers
With his silver ring.

“Hohahe, hohahe, my door!
Is not my dear girl here?”

Her hair was combed out,
Her braids were braided together.

They were parted down at the shoulder,
And reached separated on her back.

She opened to the youth with her left hand,
Welcomed him with her right hand.

‘Welcome, welcome my loved one here,
Welcome my most beloved one.’

‘Just as my yellow hair is parted,
So surely also our love has been severed.’

‘So surely also our love is severed,
Severed now in the world once and for all.”

‘I have left the wicked world
And have chosen to be under the heavenly.’

The youth turned his horse around,
And rode home to his mother.

“Oh mother, my dear old mother,
My girl does not want me.”

“She has left the wicked world,
And has chosen to be under the heavenly.”

‘So be quiet, and don’t cry, my son,
There are still enough such girls.”

‘There are nicer and much more beautiful
And much richer and much more talented.’

“I rode through the Hessian and Bautzner land,
But never found a nicer one.”

“And I never found a nicer one,
And any other I do not want.”

“Money, that I surely have enough,
Enough of the silver, enough of the gold.”

“Dollars I have so many, more than
All the leaves seen on the earth.”

“Gold I have so much, and still more
Than the grass seen in the meadow.”

“The red gold coins, I have even more
Than the leaves seen on the linden tree.”

“All of that I will now disperse
On the road and the bridges I will disperse it.”

“The poor can use it for themselves,
So that they will always think of me.”

Not half a day had gone by
When the youth got sick, the youth died.

The bells were ringing far and wide.
The people all asked themselves:

Who might have died
That the bells are ringing far and wide?

It was the youth himself who died
Because of his young lady, whom he loved.

The young lady came from the castle.
Her black silk gown reached to the ground.

“If my beloved loved me so much
That because of me he died,’

‘So I love my beloved so much
That for him I also will die.’

‘But bury us by the wayside
Bury us both by the wayside with the cross.’

‘There where the people go into the church
And where they also come out of the church.’

‘So that they will always think about us,
And remember our great love.”

‘Plant on him a grapevine,
But on me a green rose bush.’

‘There will be a small branch on the grapevine,
And on the small branch a small leaf.’

‘And on the leaf there will be a fine writing,
That we both have been saved.’

‘And I ask all youth and girls
Especially to try to escape from true love.’

‘True love is really very bad,
It’s so bad and so seducing.’

‘When two love each other faithfully,
How is that so wonderful, how is that so great?’

‘Still when one does not have anyone to love,
How is that so sad, how is that so distressing?’

‘Not as bad is death between two spouses,
Not as bad is the dying, not as bad is death,’

‘As between two young lovers
That parting and the separation must be.’


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