English translations of Drei Gesänge für Bariton mit Pianofortebegleitung, opus 60

King Sifrid sat in the high hall:
"You harpers, which of you knows the most beautiful song?"
And a youth stepped nimbly forth from the throng,
His harp in his hand, his sword at his side:

"I know three songs; the first song
You have likely already forgotten long:
You stabbed and killed my brother in a dastardly fashion,
And again [I say]: you stabbed and killed him in a dastardly fashion!

The second song, that one I made up
In a dark and stormy night:
You must fight with me in mortal combat,
And again [I say]: must fight in mortal combat!"

Then he leaned the harp up against the table,
And they both briskly drew their swords
And fought long with wild clangs,
Till the king sank down in the high hall.

"Now I shall sing the third and most beautiful song,
One that I shall never grow tired of singing:
King Sifrid lies in his red blood,
And again [I say]: lies in his red blood!"

Now the shadows are darkening
star after star is waking up:
what a breath of longing
is flooding through the night!

Across the sea of dreams,
steering ceaselessly
my soul is steering
towards your soul.

Anything that surrenders to you
is to be taken completely.
Oh, you know, that I am no longer
my own.

The water roared, the water swelled;
a fisherman sat beside,
gazing calmly at his fishing line,
cool to his very heart.
And as he sits there and as he listens,
the waves split
and from the turbulent water
a watery woman bursts up.

She sang to him, and spoke to him:
"Why do you lure my children
with your human wit and cunning,
up here to this deadly glow?
Ah, if you only knew how pleasant the tiny fish
find it below the surface,
you would come down, just as you are,
and you would be well for the first time.

Does not the dear sun refresh itself
and the moon as well, in the sea?
Do they not turn their faces, breathing the waves
and thus becoming doubly fair?
Aren't you tempted by the deep sky,
the moist and transfiguring blue?
Aren't you tempted by your own face
shining in the eternal dew?"

The water roared, the water swelled,
and moistened his naked foot;
and his heart filled with the longing
that he felt at the greeting of his beloved.
She spoke to him, and sang to him;
then all was done for him;
half pulled by her and half sinking himself,
he went down and was never seen again.