Die Teufelsmühle [English translation]

Look how the mill wheel is spinning

there in the deep valley.

No one knows what's going on there

nor what they grind.

The water flows out of the swamp

and pours onto the blades.

It's as black from dark turf

as the miller's soul.

Is it true what they

tell about him in the village?

Listen to the mill wheel spinning

where birds never sing,

where no one ever comes

to bring corn.

That's because the miller is a man

who knows many a spell.

There at the swamp like pitch and tar,

there at the cold and murky water,

he teaches the dark arts

in his black school.

The miller is a rich man

who loves to hoard his gold

because he can find many treasures

at secret places.

Sometimes at night you can see him

walking across fields and meadows.

And when he comes back soon afterwards

with a full cart

look away quickly, his evil eye

will make you freeze otherwise.

He who ventures forth to the mill

and asks there, as it's miller's custom,

for food and work,

is chased away with kicks.

He who in his need begs at the miller's

for a piece of bread

doesn't get alms but only

scornful laughter.

The Master lets the dogs loose,

he has twelve as guardians.

Listen to the mill wheel spinning

always round the nave.

Can you feel the time passing

till you lie in your grave?

Only the miller, year after year,

stays as young as ever.

When was it that he took the mill over?

No one can say anymore.

The old master, it's told,

he slayed when he came.

Just listen to the wheel spinning

in the evening chill.

A second one is inside a room

in the devil's mill.

And the miller's boys are standing in a circle,

their faces white with flour.

No one knows at whom it's pointing,

the notch in the wheel,

but the person at whom it'll point when it finally stands still

has to die today.

The mill cowers inside the valley

and lurks for prey.

Many a person it has already devoured,

it's a crack in place and time.

Sometimes you can see boys

on their way to the mill.

And whoever the miller takes in

to teach

is lost for the world

and won't return.

Is lost for the world

and won't return...