Vävare Lasse [Vaevare-Lasse] [English translation]

Farmer Lasse sits and weaves a web on his loom

Farmer Lasse thanks God in his thoughts for his loom

Farmer Lasse thanks the Virgin Mary

because his loom gave him the money to propose

money to celebrate, money to spend

yes, the loom gave him freedom

There is knocking at the door and who can it be

He releases his shuttle and hurries up to answer

But before he has time, the door is torn open

and in storms the sheriff with all of his squad

Beats him down, although he begs

Beats him until he becomes quiet.

Beggar-Lasse has no longer any home

He never saw the cottage and wife and child again

The ground is hard to sleep on

and the roads are long and hard to walk

Many, like he, do what they can

to fill their screaming stomachs

Hunger and thirst and cold and tiredness are hard

But the laws of the country and king are even worse:

"You only own tie and rod

and then you are arrested and sentenced to be a beggar-slave

Burned with iron, forged in iron

and put out like serfs at the sheriff's house"

One must have work to have something to eat

The only thing he knows, except plowing the earth, is to weave

The sheriff has built himself a weaving mill

Lasse, like the others, looks for it there

For those who are skilled, three bucks a day

when 18 hours are done.

Weaver-Lasse weaves a web in his loom

Weaver-Lasse curses and hates his loom

He swears at God and the Virgin Mary

Those who have money and power, they are free

to rob and kill and imprison the small ones

and chain them fast to a loom.