In the magical gardens of Andalusia
Blossoms shiver down nightly,
Upon the stormily fervent love songs
Of the dark son of the desert.
Ah! he seeks the desert flower,
Seeks the fleeing gazelle,
The oasis of his eyes,
The fresh well-spring of his heart.
And he stems the stream of his songs
To listen breathlessly;
The white flowers tenderly send forth
Their scent to intoxicate him.
Richly decorated, shining with gold,
The house stands in the moonlight.
Silence round about, only his lament
Still trembles through the night alone.
The desert has no palaces,
But in order to adorn the tent of his precious one
He ventures forth on many a bloody military campaign,
Only to seek new carpet fragments,
Only to see her two dimples,
The splendour of her teeth,
The while her words fall like pearls
To melt upon his fervent heart.
When a foreign sheik kidnapped her,
He heard her cry of fear ring out,
Upon his stallion, quick as the wind,
He assailed her captor.
The fight was bloody and fierce,
Until the sheik writhed in the sand,
Until his eagle eye in dying
Turned toward her in a last fervent glance. -
“I shall belong to you in all eternity!”
She said softly as she mounted the stallion,
And leaned her little head without reluctance
Upon his breast.
But when he returned
To remind her, to ask her,
The beloved had vanished,
Carried off by the simoom.
His pain was terrible to see:
With torn garments
He cursed the maiden, cursed fate,
Groaning in the hot sand,
He dragged himself upright, to resoundingly
Swear a vow into the vastness,
Never to stop searching for the maiden
In the whole world.
The magical garden of Andalusia
Finally received him,
And before the threshold of her house
He arrived, singing.
Night after night with songs
From her homeland he seeks to move her,
In order to carry her off into the desert
In his strong arms.
But the scents of Andalusia
Have embraced her too gently,
For her stern homeland she has
Already cherished no yearning for a long while!

Hark! gazelle-like steps approach,
And gazelle-like eyes gleam!
Does the dew wish to fall from the heavens
In order to moisten the earth?
And two white arms entwine themselves
About his neck; pleading
Sounds in his ear: “Dear one!
If you love me, you must go!
Every one of your sweet songs
Only brings me anxiety, pain and suffering,
To enjoy your love
Would bring me certain death.
The gazelle lies in captivity,
Has almost forgotten freedom,
Even in dreams she must almost no longer know
That she once possessed you!”
And two lips intoxicatingly
Meet his lips.  With lightning speed
His weapon is unsheathed and buries itself to the hilt
In the bosom of the gazelle.
Smashed against the nearest tree
Lies the lyre: “Thus may
My revenge reach her father,
Her tribe with one blow!”
Once more he must bow down
To the lovely, mute bride,
To press a fervent kiss
Upon her cold, white lips.
Then he rises up and turns
Again toward the distant homeland. -
The magical gardens of Andalusia
Gently rain down blossoms.