Jahrtausendalt [English translation]

I saw a lad play,

of ash wood was his bow,

I just saw him aim,

when his arrow had already flown.

A falcon I heard screaming,

wildly he threw himself upwards into the blue,

He could not free himself,

for terror was rising with him.

From his prey's struggles the arrow,

wildly-splittered, bent itself

And beside him in the emptiness,

the boy's cheer flew.

I heard both screams,

and did not know which higher sounded,

Whether the one from the wild sorrow,

of the grey predator springing.

Whether the one from bliss,

out of the lad's chest sounding,-

They both flew to the sun,

and both were a millennium old.