English translations of Gesänge in Balladenform für eine mittlere Singstimme mit Pianoforte, opus 6

My darling, I have built myself a castle in the air,
In it we shall dwell as a couple.
Not another so airy and amusing has ever been seen
Along the Tiber and the Danube and the Rhine.

The walls are of crystal, the roof of rubies,
The great hall is built of gold.
A table that is magically laden with food stands in the middle of it
And invites us to a merry meal.

Two marble fountains play,
We hear their sound early and late.
One of them provides us with Burgundy,
From the other bubbles forth Muscat.

Chests filled with precious jewelry
Are standing about in all the rooms,
And if you were to draw forth adornments forever
They would still never grow empty.

And round about the castle is a green grove
With flowers of strange splendour.
By day they emit a scent like foreign spices
And by night they glow like stars.

In the breezes there wafts a sound as of harps
And enticing bird-calls.
Twelve brave little horses neigh in the stable
And paw the ground with golden hooves.

That is my castle. I have created it
Like the poet creates a poem for himself.
I thought it all out in a dream
And put it together as I dreamt.

Its wondrous airy stones shimmer
And sparkle down from the heights,
And once I have discovered how to fly,
My darling, then we shall move in.

They are alone, for the mother 
Returns only at night from the field . . . . 
The linden tree soughs through the window, --
And the old woman tells the child
The sunny fairy-tale of happiness.

She tells of the enchanted prince
And the spiteful, glowering fairy;
Of the castle upon the rocky beach,
Of the wild surging of the waves,
And the fisherman’s hut at the lake.

And the prince mourned away year upon year
As a snake in the gloomy vale . . . 
He writhed in glowing chains, --
Only a kiss could save him,
A kiss from rosy lips.

The fisherman's lovely daughter
Had a lofty, radiant spirit.
She broke the golden chains:
But he made the lovely one
His queen!

Grandmother falls silent, and the spinning wheel hums,
And the little girl sits as if mesmerized;
And folds her hands in her lap
And fastens her eyes, her big eyes,
Fixedly dreaming upon the wall.

Grandmother, how lovely, oh how singularly lovely!
Grandmother, oh, were that true!
Grandmother, I would not be afraid, -
How gladly I should embrace the snake
Despite horror and deathly peril!

Why only did they think all that up
If it never happened upon the earth . . . ?
I feel such woe in my soul,
As I feel near the churchyard,
As I feel standing before my father's grave!

Be strong, you trembling heart of the child,
And fight back the tears!
It has deceived us all,
It has tricked us all,
The sunny fairy-tale of happiness!