The Gallows Song.
It was in these small hours that men and women were taken from their cells, dazed with weariness and sick with fear. Beyond the high walls, a magpie sounds a cautious warble, though the horizon is not yet kindled into dawn. With slow, small steps, you trudge your brief and final distance. Ahead, a priest, a hooded figure… and her. Your stomach drops. You’re crying now. Your legs give way, but the guards catch you and prop you up. They’ll tie you to a chair if they need to. It’s all the same when that floor drops away.
12. The Gallows Song
The scrawny harlot
with the long neck
will be this man’s
last lover.
In his brain
she sticks like a nail,
the scrawny harlot
with the long neck.
Skinny as a pine tree,
a pigtail round her neck –
she’ll sensuously caress
the rogue’s bare throat,
the scrawny harlot.
12. Galgenlied
Die dürre Dirne
Mit langem Halse
Wird seine letzte
Geliebte sein.
In seinem Hirne
Steckt wie ein Nagel
Die dürre Dirne
Mit langem Halse.
Schlank wie die Pinie,
Am Hals ein Zöpfchen -
Wollüstig wird sie
Den Schelm umhalsen,
Die dürre Dirne!