"A sultry breath is wafting over me,
The flower on my breast is wilting.
Oh where are you, Wilhelm, beloved?
My soul's sweet delight!
To weep for ever,
Never to appear!
Are you already sleeping in the cool lap?
Do you also think of me under the moss?"

Minna is weeping; they have left her
Gradually, the red on her cheek and the red of her lips.
Wilhelm had set off
With his troops to die in battle.
Since that hour
There has been no news!
You have already been sleeping for a long time in the cool lap.
You are thinking of your Minna under the moss.

The lover is sitting in calm grief,
Watching the little gold star pass by,
And the moon beholds the poor woman
With a look of compassion.
Listen, wafting up there
Out of the heights
Evening breezes are blowing over her;
There on the rocks your lover is waiting for you.

Minna hurries in the shimmer of the moon,
Pale and full of foreboding, across the fields.
She never finds her William,
She only finds the mound of his grave.
"I am now above you
With you my love.
You speak to me out of the cool lap:
I am thinking of you, Minna, under the moss."

And many thousands of little flowers rise
Up out of the grave, in a friendly way.
Minna knows the signs of love.
She makes a bed for herself there.
"I am now above you,
With you my love!"
She lies down on the little flowers
And finds her Wilhelm again.