Falk und Nachtigall [English translation]

In her1 cage of cold steel

sits a small nightingale,

Free her, free her, one should free her,

For she has never seen the blue sky close up,

And was, was never there, and the forest,

how it blooms and doesn't become old,

and yet, yet, it will have her soon.

Wait, you small nightingale!

I open your cage of steel,

Free you, free you, I shall free you,

and she flew high in the sky and sang,

And it was like: Be thankful

High in the blueness I saw her, how she flew,

So precisely, I saw her precisely,

Then a falcon swooped down on her,

and her song suddenly broke off,

Free her, free her, I wanted to free her,

but she had never seen falcons close up

High in the blueness his2 claws struck the nightingale,

I saw it precisely.

1. "Sie" is likely used as "it" here, but this keeps it somewhat poetic and also avoids confusion with too many "it"s2. As above with "sie", here "sein" means "its" but "his" helps avoid ambiguity