The Night-Mare (Apel/Klauer-Klattowski)

by Johann August Apel

For other English-language translations of this work, see Alp.

The night-mare.

Martha went with his child
along the willow-bush,^[1] along the rushy pond:
Ah, mother, what becomes thy face so pale?
What hastens thou so apprehensively and swiftly?

Be quiet, my child, the wind blows cool,
come, wrap-up thee warmly in the mantle.
There it croaks dull: Give to me the little-boy
on thy arm for a play!

Ah, mother, hearest thou screech the owl,
how she croaks: come with me.
Be quiet, my child, we are soon home,
we hasten with quick step.

Give thy son to me, and if thou wilt not,
so I take with violence him.
The mother signs stilly the face of the child
with the form of the holy cross.

If I shall not have thy child, so behold,
how the night-mare brings to thee his own child;
and quick something rolls itself, grey, out of the bush,
and springs upon the neck to her.

And she anguishes herself, and groans and gasps,
bowed down by the hideous load;
and she carries, till she reaches painfully^[2] the farm yard,
there she sinks down and expires.

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1. der Weidenbusch, das Weidengebüsche, a willow-plot.
2. mühsam, mit vieler Mühe, with much difficulty, with much ado.