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...