The square is black from loud people
who stand in the dawn.
A crowd of many,
everyone has come to see me,
there the gallows and the rope,
and the hangman's cold look,
a stairway, seven steps,
and the henchmen who shout to me
I know this from hundreds of times,
I scream it laughing into your faces
It is useless to hang me,
die, I can't die!
The beams are strongly timbered,
tower blackly up to the sky,
a prematurely greyed widow
lets her tears run freely,
The priest appears grand,
he reads from the book of books,
and the hangman with skill
lays the noose around my neck
I know this from hundreds of times...
The day becomes gray, the hangman comes
to give me my death.
I cannot die because I know
my song will live forever
Even after a hundred deaths
I scream laughing into your faces
It is useless to hang me,
die... I can't die!