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The Google Translate version of that is a joy. Here's a bit:

so sprach die Mutter, sprach der Vater, lehrte der Pastor.
Er schlich aber immer wieder durch das Gartentor
und in die Kaninchenställe,
wo sie sechsundsechzig spielten
um Tabak und Rattenfälle,
Mädchen unter Röcke schielten,
wo auf alten Bretterkisten
Katzen in der Sonne dösten,
wo man, wenn der Regen rauschte,
Engelbert, dem Blöden lauschte,
der auf einem Haarkamm biß,
Rattenfängerlieder blies.
Abends, am Familientisch, nach dem Gebet zum Mahl,
hieß es dann: Du riechst schon wieder nach Kaninchenstall.
Spiel nicht mit den Schmuddelkindern,
sing nicht ihre Lieder.
Geh doch in die Oberstadt,
mach´s wie deine Brüder!

so said the mother, the father said, taught the pastor.
He crept through the gate but again and again
and the rabbit hutches,
where she played sixty-six
to tobacco and rat cases
Girls under skirts covet
where on the old wooden crates
Cats dozing in the sun,
where, when the rain poured,
Engelbert, the idiot listened
bit of a hair comb,
Pied songs blew.
In the evening, at the family table, after the prayer for the meal,
it was then said: You again smell like rabbit hutch.
Do not play with the grubby children,
do not sing their songs.
Just go to the Upper Town,
do it like your brothers!

Does Rattenfänger mean rat-catcher?

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Thu Dec 3rd, 2009 at 08:00:08 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Yes.
But the story of the pied piper is the story of the Ratcatcher of Hameln. Which is of course a metaphor on the Children's Crusades...
by PeWi on Thu Dec 3rd, 2009 at 12:33:48 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Yes, I was thinking of the Pied Piper, of course with the Google translation "Pied"...

Great song!

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Thu Dec 3rd, 2009 at 01:02:19 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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