Arrest your snorting steed,
Blinded knight!
Up toward Windeck is fleeing
The deer that is tempting you on.

And before the mighty towers,
From the derelict outer gate
His eyes scanned the ruins
Among which the game had lost itself.

It was so lonely and quiet,
The sun burned down so hotly;
He took a deep breath and dried
The sweat from his brow.

"Who would bring me of precious wine
A full drinking horn,
[Wine] that the buried cellars here
Are said to be concealing still?"

The words had barely flown
Swiftly from his lips,
When around the ivy-shrouded wall
A ministering chatelaine already came.

The delicate, the magnificent maiden,
In a blindingly white dress,
The key chain hanging from her belt
The drinking horn held aloft in her hand.

With greedy lips he quaffed
The spicy, precious wine,
He [also] quaffed consuming flames
Into his bosom.

The clear depths of her eyes!
The liquid gold of her curls! --
He clasped his hands,
Pleading for love's reward.

She looked at him pityingly
And seriously and marvellously,
And vanished as quickly
As she had appeared.

Since this hour, bound by
An enchantment to Windeck's ruins,
He has found neither peace, nor rest,
And has known no hope.

He crept about in a waking dream,
Ghost-like, ill, wasted and pale,
Unable to die,
And unlike any living person.

It is said that she appeared to him
Again after a long time,
And kissed him upon the lips,
And thus freed him from life.

  In the moonlight, in the forest night,
There the fairy sits at the well-spring;
She lets the splendour of her hair flutter in the wind,
And draws breath quietly and gently,
  And listens, and listens, and waits quietly,
  Whether anyone wishes to deliver her
From her lovelorn state.

  Oh huntsman, oh huntsman! take care, take care,
Approach quietly with your little dog!
Already she is letting her eyes sparkle mightily!
If once she smiles at you,
  No herb of the forest can heal you,
  Woe! here and beyond, your peace
Would be eternally destroyed!

  Oh huntsman, oh huntsman! blow your horn briskly,
So that she is abruptly startled and grows pale,
And conceals herself once more in the well-spring,
Otherwise you are lost, body and soul! --
  Thank God, thank God! she has flown!
  Thank God, thank God with a bright sound,
That she did not seize you!