"Up! Up!
Run and jump!
Where the air is so light, where the sun is so clear,
Only the chamoix jumps, only the eagle nests;
Where the human crowd rolls by beneath my feet,
Where the sound of thunder rumbles deep below me:
That is the place where majesty
Should raise its lordly throne as master!
The steep track
Let us be off! Let us be off!
That is where the chamoix bleats! Oh, just jump in front of it;
The huntsman pursues it and flies upwards!

"A cleft in the rock yawns,
Black as the grave;
Just jump over it, over it with an easy motion!
Who can pursue me? That was a real imperial leap!
Only chamoix clamber up this cliff face!
Into the airy heights, onto the edge of the abyss,
I can make my way with iron.
Just go up with courage, just go forward with courage!
No stopping now,
Grab hold of the bush!
If the branch betrays me and comes loose from the rocks
I can still hold on firmly to the cliff if I fall!"

He loses his foothold on the stone,
The Emperor falls
Two fathoms down into the depths;
Then Prince Max became rather anxious, you might say.
There is a bit of a rock sticking out,
Which he considers fortunate - praise God!
His knees have taken a jolt, but he has stayed upright,
And he is swaying; so he has to have a look:
No jumping was going to help here,
No soaring like an eagle;
For falling away underneath him is Martin's Wall,
The steepest cliff in the whole land.

He stares down
Into a cloudy grave,
And he stares up into a sea of clouds,
And he looks behind him and looks around.
There is no sign anywhere of a spot where he can jump even a hand's breadth,
No bush offering a branch to a climber,
The hard stone behind him is curved into emptiness
Directly behind him, like a high dome!
The Emperor calls out
Into the deaf air:
"Oh, how that chamoix has tricked me!
There is no way back to the land of the living."

Thus it was willed,
This it has come to pass!
Where the air is so light, where the sun is so clear,
Only the chamoix jumps, only the eagle nests;
Where the human crowd rolls by beneath his feet,
Where the sound of thunder rumbles deep below:
That is where His Majesty the Emperor is standing,
But not raised up in bliss.
A son of sorrow
On an airy throne,
Max suddenly now finds himself alone,
And he feels terrified, abandoned and small.

In the valley bottom
A shepherd was standing,
And he looks up at the soaring cliff
And notices something moving about, bending, standing up and pacing around.
"Has Satan conjured someone into his power?
By God, that is a human figure!"
That is what he calls out, and he gestures to the other shepherds,
To marvel with him at the phenomenon!
"God be with him!"
Is one of the voices:
"Whoever is standing up there in great distress
Will almost certainly die of hunger."

On a light horse
One of the hunting party
Comes trotting down the valley
To the point where a crowd has gathered to stare up,
And he calls out to the nearest shepherd:
"Did the Emperor come this way, by any chance?
He climbed high up into the Alps
And so he lost sight of the hunting party."
The shepherd
Looks at Martin's Wall, horrified,
And says to the the company of huntsmen, pointing up:
"That is him you can see up there! God have mercy on him!"

The huntsman looks
At Martin's Wall, horrified,
And quickly raises his loudspeaker,
And calls up with all the force a human breast can summon:
"My Lord Emperor, if it is you standing up there,
Throw a stone down immediately!"
And the crowd of humans surges forward,
And suddenly there was a deathly silence.
Then the stone falls,
Plunging vertically,
Where a herder is keeping watch under the cliff,
And it crashes down onto his head.

The wailing of the crowd
Could be heard for a mile
Around in all directions,
Amplified by the echo.
And the cries of distress rise up to the Emperor,
Who can no longer realistically hope for human help.
He strains his eyes and his ears:
"What is that swirling down there? What rumbling is coming up?"
He looks and listens;
The swirling and the rumbling continue - 
Thus he waits, without moaning or complaining,
The noble Prince waits there until midday.

But the burning sun
Hits the wall of rock
And majestic glowing beams bounce back;
The strong heat then becomes unbearable.
Exhausted by the draining hunt for the chamoix,
Parched with thirst, tormented with hunger,
Max begins to feel drained and weak; - 
Is it any wonder that his strength eventually collapsed?
The only thing he wanted was
To be certain,
Before he fell unconscious,
That human help was no longer possible.

He soon had an idea
And started acting on it,
And he wrote with a pencil on parchment
Asking the people his question, and he quickly rolled 
The document up and tied it with a golden ribbon
Onto a heavy piece of marble,
And he dropped it down into the depths; - 
And listen - not a sound replied to him.
Oh God and Lord!
He is so much beloved
So nobody in the crowd could be found
To act as a messenger announcing to the Prince his imminent death.

The Emperor is keenly
Waiting for an answer,
And he sends a third and a fourth stone,
But it was always going to be in vain.
Until the sun starts to fall lower in the sky
And the Prince sighs and thinks to himself:
"If help were possible, they would call me,
Therefore I can be sure that I can expect to die here."
Then his mind rose
Towards God;
The holy spirit set fire to his heart,
Allowing him quickly to tear himself away from earthly things;

He pushes the world away,
He grasps hold of what is eternal!
He now takes one more note in his hand
And writes eagerly. - Because there was no ribbon,
He attached it to the stone with the chain of the order of the Golden Fleece;
What else could he do? He was sure he was going to die!
And out of his lofty, airy grave
He throws the stone down amongst the living.
Lots of painful agony
Spreads through the hearts
Of those who hear the Emperor's request,
They weep as they listen to the person weeping as he reads aloud.

The reader called out:
"This is what the letter says.
Many thanks, Tyrol, for your love,
Which always remained faithful to me in every emergency.
But I challenged God with my pride,
Which I now have to atone for with my body and blood.
I can no longer be saved by humans;
Let God's will be done! The Lord is just!
I shall confess my guilt,
With courage and patience.
You can only do one thing to delight my heart,
I shall now dedicate my gratitude to you in death.

"Send a messenger to Zierlein quickly
And without delay
Ask for the holy sacrament,
For which my thirsting soul is burning.
And when the priest is standing by the river,
Let me know by getting a marksman to shoot.
And when I have received the blessing
Indicate it by firing a second shot.
I beg you
Then to pray together
As I ask God to help me in this situation
By strengthening me as I die of hunger."

The messenger flies off;
The panting priest
Soon appears, he is now standing by the river,
They quickly inform the Emperor by firing a shot.
He looks down, catches sight of the monstrance,
Since its wreath of diamonds is glistening like lightning.
And he throws himself down on his knees,
With a remorseful heart, with an attitude of faith.
Humanity wrestles,
And is victorious, and soars
Quickly upwards on unfettered wings
To the most sacred source of eternal love!

And oh how he pleaded
In his ardent prayer!
"Oh God, father almighty on the throne of heaven,
Oh Son of God, love pouring from love,
And you oh most holy spirit of God,
Uniting them both in order to bring us salvation;
Oh God, whose love is proclaimed 
Aloud by every trace of nature all around!
Oh if I could quickly immerse myself
In the fountain of love,
My loving spirit would embrace the world
Which you lovingly hold in your arms.

"Before my death
Your heavenly bread
Is what I long for - oh, how intensely - unworthy as I am!
Oh look down on me in mercy!
May the love of Christ visit me,
And take me back to the assembly of believers,
Which your love has so ardently animated
So that they can be united as one with God and the world.
And since I am not worthy
To beg for anything,
A single word from your mouth
Will make your servant healthy again."

In this way, as he prays, he wants
To die of love.
Then a second shot is sent to him,
So that he can now receive the blessing.
The Prince immediately falls to the rocky floor,
Throwing down his forehead and his wounded hands.
And the huntsman takes the loudspeaker
And repeats the words of the priest:
"God bless you
In your extremity,
Father, Son and Holy Ghost,
Praised by heaven and earth without end."

Now all together
Throughout the whole valley
The people kneel and pray,
Begging for their Prince to be saved.
The Emperor is moved, the crowd of intercessors
Resounds and echoes in his ears.
He too remains kneeling in prayer,
And begs God for the wellbeing of his people,
The moon is soon aflame
On the horizon,
And the darkening firmament burns majestically
With a host of sparkling stars.

The splendour of the sky
Powerfully awakens
A longing for his heavenly fatherland,
He is released from every earthly connection.
Towards the place where the seraphim's harp sounds out in jubilation,
Where the blessed choir of the saints sing,
Where suffering is silenced, where desire is stilled,
Towards eternal love, towards eternal light,
That is where
His mind soars,
And with hands lifted high
He imagines that his suffering is now coming to an end;

Then slender and delicate
There was a small peasant
Standing in front of him, dazzling him like lightning,
And he greeted him with a loving voice:
"Prince Max, there is plenty of time to die later,
Just follow me quickly. The path is wide."
The Emperor is horrified by the face
And does not trust his eyes or his ears.
And as he looks on
He secretly becomes afraid;
For around the lad an unusual
Strange glow emerged, which was not like anything on earth.

But the Emperor is quick
To compose himself
And he asks the lad, "Who are you? Tell me!"
"A messenger sent to rescue you."
"Who showed you the way to this cleft in the rock?"
"I know the mountain well and every step."
"So is it heaven that has sent you to me?"
"God has noticed your contrite heart."
Then they move
And go to a little hollow,
And they slip gently through a crack in the wall
Which his keen eye had not hitherto spotted.

Bending through the crack
The Emperor pushes himself forward;
Look! the lad is leaping along, lighting the way,
Through steep crevasses, on a pathway into the depths.
Where ore sparkles on the walls of the cave,
In the depths vapours swim and emit flashes of light,
The footsteps can be heard in the vault above,
In the distance there is the rumbling thunder of a tumbling mountain stream,
Even further down,
Miles down:
The lad then slides into a crevasse
The torch goes out. - With anxious hands Max now seeks

To find his way in front of him,
And he presses on;
And he beholds the light of the stars as he breathes out,
And he looks for the lad - and he cannot find him.
He is then gripped with astonishment. He was not wrong.
It really was an angel that had led him
And he soon recognises Zierlein in the valley of the Inn,
He can hear the roar of the confused crowd.
With trembling gait
He steps forward,
So often, exhausted, he has to rest
Until he approaches the broadly shining river.

He is now standing clear,
But overjoyed,
He can see the priest by the light of a torch
Standing unwearied with the monstrance.
And now the faithful assembly kneel,
Ardently praying for him.
His eyes filled with tears, his heart swelled up,
- For it was full of a thousand emotions.
He quickly steps forward
And cries out loud:
"Praise to the Lord and his power!
Look, His angel has brought me back."