Die Rose im Wasser [English translation]

Her slender body floats upon the stream

With a nest of young water-rats in her hair

She is so pale and cold that a willow weeps its

Leaves down upon her in silent anguish

And all around in the water roses bloom

Red for her beloved1

White for the dead

An old salamander crouches on the shore

And lifts its dragon-head2into the sunlight

It knows nothing of a virgin’s heartache

Knows nothing of cruelty and also of love

And all around in the water roses bloom

Red for her beloved

White for the dead

The sunset gilds her cheeks

An eel glides3over her white breast

And a final sigh goes through the branches

A breath of sorrow and a breath of desire

And all around in the water roses bloom

Red for her beloved

White for the dead

4

1. Dative phrases and the nominalizing of adjectives are always thorny to translate. Luckily, there are good corresponding nominalized adjectives in English here, but the rhyme and poetic beauty of the dative phrase gets lost unfortunately.2. German likes to express certain things with compounding that English would express perhaps with an adjective, and the core meaning here is not that the salamander has a literal dragon's head, but that its head resembles a dragon. I thought that retaining the compounding was aesthetically more pleasing, however. 3. The word used here is "schlüpfen," which can also mean "to hatch," and I believe that, while the eel is gliding/sliding over her literally, there was supposed to be a connotation of birth.4. This is, in my opinion, one of Subway to Sally's most captivating, haunting, and beautiful songs, and I agonized a bit over the word choices because I wanted to do it justice, even if the lyrics are fairly short.