The youth stands upon the deck,
Sees his ships a-sailing,
The sun gleams, the breezes play
With his golden locks.
 
The oars resound, the sail swells,
The colourful pennants flutter,
Singing and playing, mermaids
Cavort about the keel.
 
 ...  That is my kingdom
That freely and merrily ranges,
That, encircling the lazy world,
Roves upon the blue waters.
 
Then dark clouds appear
Bringing tempests and  ...  thunderstorms.
The lightning bolts streak from out the night,
The masts burst into splinters.
 
The waves dash themselves onto the ship,
Such wild waves, waves like mountains;
The king's son is consumed
With his whole merry kingdom.

Fisherman:
 Sunk, alas, mast and keel!
 The cries of the ship's crew have died away!
 But see, who is swimming toward us there,
 About whom the waves roll?
 
 With strong arms he parts the flood
 And has little fear of the waves,
 His head with a golden crown he carries high,
 It seems to me he is a king.
 
Youth:
 A king's son, but I have long since
 Lost my homeland.
 First my weak mother,
 The earthly one, bore me.
 
 But now by a second mother,
 The powerful sea, I was born a second time.
 In giant arms she rocked
 Me and my brethren.
 
 The others all could not bear it,
 Me she brought here to the shore.
 It must mean that as a kingdom she has chosen
 For me all these wide lands.