Hear the funeral bell ring;
Long does it ring!
Bitter sorrow in audible pitches, a bitter life ending in slumber.
An iron note announces the funereal melancholy.
And against our wills we shiver,
Hastening from the strange entertainment
And weep, remembering that our own eyes shall be shut.
Persistent and monotonous,
That distant cry
Of the funeral bell's leaden pealing,
Indeed groaning,
Sorrowful, angry,
And lamentable,
Swelling and rumbling long,
Announcing that the sufferer sleeps in wakeless slumber.
In the bell's rusty belfry
On behalf of the righteous and the wicked
It menacingly echoes:
That the soul is entombed in stone, that the eyes are shuttered in sleep.
The mourning torch blazes;
With the bells someone is shouting, someone loudly announces.
A dark figure stands there,
And roars with laughter, and growls,
And screams, screams, screams;
Leaning against the belfry,
he swings the sonorous bell.
The sonorous bell sobs,
Groaning in the silent air
And slowly announcing the coffin's peace.