King
 Begin!
 
Youth
 Listen, maiden, from on high
 To a song that is dedicated to you!
 In order that a dream from the rosy time of childhood
 May gently waft about you.
 
 I remained far away from the hall,
 Bright with candles, in which you sat enthroned,
 Where about you at the rich feast
 Noble lords sat happily.
 Familiar only with happiness,
 They would have wished for something joyful,
 Would not have honoured the lamenting tones of love,
 Not the rights of childhood.
 
Youth and Queen
 Yes, time has flown by,
 But remembrance never passes;
 
[King
[ What do I hear! they both forget themselves in the song,
[ Burning with rage, the king reaches for his sword!
[Youth and Queen
[ As a bright rainbow
[ It stands upon the dismal clouds.
[ Like a bright rainbow!
Queen
[ My sweet pain flees from scrutiny,
[ So that remembrance does not vanish.
[ Only tell me this, does your heart
[ Still feel the joy of childhood?
[Youth
[ And the son of songs fell silent,
[ He who sat at the base of the tower;
[ And from the window above there came a sound,
[ And something gleamed in the dark grass.
[ "Take the ring and think of me,
[ Think of the beauty of our childhood!
[ Take it! a precious stone
[ Gleams upon it and a tear.
 
Queen (forgetting herself)
 Intoxicated you lie in the arms of love,
 The fruits of life beckon you;
 Only one gaze has sunk down upon me,
 Yet I am richer than all of you!
 I gladly do without the happiness of earth,
 And, a martyr, I gaze upward,
 For above me in the golden distance
 Heaven has opened!
 
King (furiously)
 You have inveigled my people,
 Now you beguile my wife?
 Die, cowardly son of slaves!
 
[Queen
[ Alas! Woe!
[Chorus
[ Woe! his bloody body sank down!