from Volkslieder (Folksongs)
Translation by Anonymous / Unidentified Author

Hi‑fe‑lin‑ke‑le!
Language: English  after the Swedish (Svenska) 
A young man walked at the morning hour,
          Hi-fe-lin-ke-le !
          So light and merrily ;
Met there a maid in a rosy bower ;
          " Wilt thou be mine ? " said he.
             " No, no, no, no !
          Truly I will not be so, 
          For another have I now," said she.
             Hi-fe-lin-ke-le !

The young man walked at the noontide hour,
          Hi-fe-lin-ke-le !
          So light and merrily ;
Met then the maid of the rosy bower;
          " Wilt now be mine ? " said he.
             " No, no, no, no !
          Truly I will not be so, 
          For another have I still, " said she.
             Hi-fe-lin-ke-le !

The young man walked at the evening hour,
          Hi-fe-lin-ke-le !
          So light and merrily ;
Came then the maid of the rosy bower ;
          " I 'll now be thine, " said she.
             " No, no, no, no !
          'Tween us now it is no go, 
          For another have I now. " said he.
             Hi-fe-lin-ke-le !

Text Authorship:

Based on:

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):


Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2026-02-15
Line count: 27
Word count: 148