A Barrel-Organ Song

Come here and listen to the melody

I'm weaving with love and bliss.

A young sailor, a young sailor

went to the Zoo on a sunday evening.

There he met a beautiful nice girl,

and such a beautiful girl

is a sailor's reward

for the groan of all tempests

on the cold green waves.

They went astray in the vernal forest

as sailors and girls do

and sat down among green leaves

as delightful as in paradise,

and he begged and he got and he took,

as a sailor can beg

and a girl can give

with ah's and thanks and sighs

and the woe of salted tears.

And this is the song for last year,

and this is the song for this year,

and this is the song that we will get,

as long as this world stands

in the blue sky,

and the red colour of roses and the sun,

and such a gorgeous girl

and a young sailor

in the blissful thickets of the Zoo

will meet each other.

But if someone asks who has composed

the melody of this beautiful song,

I say without a lie

that it's him who, falala

and falalay,

and falali, is twirling the barrel-organ

about such a pretty girl

and a sailor gone by the sea

and untrue in his mind

like sailors' untrue nature.