Lied vom Knüppelchen [English translation]

I heard many songs back then,

In the midst of the workers.

Oh, in them it rang out

With joy and pain.

Even if I forgot a lot,

The song of work will always stay

Loyally in my heart

Hey, you little bludgeon, you green one,1

Hey, and if it doesn't want to work by itself,

We'll help!2

We'll help!

So give it to him.3

From the mouth of the grandfathers

It's been inherited to this day

The song about the brave bludgeon.

Because everyone likes to take,

When beset by poverty,

It up as the most secure measure.

Hey, you little bludgeon, you green one,

Hey, and if it doesn't want to work by itself,

We'll help!

We'll help!

So give it to him.

When the peasant perishes,

As a peasant does perish,

They leave their son a heritage:

"Patiently bear your lot,

As it falls to a peasant.4

Remember the bludgeon, too, when I die."

Hey, you little bludgeon, you green one,

Hey, and if it doesn't want to work by itself,

We'll help!

We'll help!

So give it to him.

But once there will come the day

When the peasant awakens,

Stretches their bound limbs,

And beats down their enemy,

Who made them miserable,

To the ground with the bludgeon.

1. referring to it being made out of young wood2. idiom meaning forcing someone3. idiom meaning beating someone up4. "lot" is used in the sense of "fate" here