As promised, the first song 'Der schlafende Kaiser' (the sleeping emperor) from the album '
Bergentrückt' (mountain rapture), by the band 'Sturmpercht'. If you're familiar with any folktales or stories related to the 'King under the Mountain' theme, this will be familiar to you. JRR Tolkien utilized this theme in the Lord of the Rings. It appears in many cultures, and figures prominently in Alpine cultures and Northern Europe.
I am not a translator by trade, and my German skills have become rusty with disuse over the years. Furthermore, Sturmpercht is Austrian, and the dialect is distinctly different from the Northern German dialect I learned in West Berlin. The lyrics are quite poetic, and I have failed to retain any semblance of tempo or rhyme in the translation. This is an amateur effort, so any offers of correction are welcome. Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy!
Sturmpercht - Der Schlafende Kaiser/The Sleeping Emperor
A shepherd boy was standing at Untersberg (Under the Mountain) late in the evening, when a brown dwarf emerged out of the rock. "Would you like to see the Kaiser Karl, you merry shepherd boy? So climb down with me from these heights, into the dark-as-night depths of the Mountain.”
The Shepherd descends with the little man into a special entrance leading beneath the surface, so that he may be shown the Kaiser who lives below.
As the dwarf leads the shepherd through fissures in the rock, days pass, out of sight of the sun. And deeper, ever deeper they went down into the black gulch, all around gray rocks hung in night-polluted air.
Then suddenly, bright as a traffic light, both were standing before a portal of light. And what a sudden shining light there was, a room opened wide before them, and shone as silver.
Column loomed upon column, wall flickering upon wall; there watchful guards stood rigid and mute, with spear in hand. Helmet fallen, shield on arm, statues all alike; absent the warmth of a heartbeat beneath their armor in this barren realm.
In the midst of the hall sat the ancient Kaiser, asleep for time unmeasured, looking neither left nor right. A crown adorned his head, hair trimmed close, his white beard grown over a marble table.
He nodded heavily, in slumber, and through bushy brows, as though occupied with special tasks even in dreams. There were also many proud men sitting around the edge of the table, heads resting in hands, nodding like unto the Kaiser.
They wore all manner of vests, in a variety of colors. Like the Kaiser, their beards grown over the marble table. The shepherd, seeing this, kneels low before the Kaiser, whose head wobbles gently, but sleeps as before.
But then with difficulty, the Kaiser raises his head, and earnestly asks of the Shepherd, “Speak - do the ravens yet fly around this mountain?” Answering, the shepherd spake, “They yet fly about, as before."
Then the aged Kaiser, as though badly injured, lowers his head of white hair, and murmurs, “So I have yet a hundred years more to sleep!” Then the Kaiser slumbers once more, eyebrows pulling, and around the table all sleep and nod alike.
The dwarf then beckons gently to the shepherd, who hurries to follow. Once more through the night, the gnome leads the young guest. As they at last stand upon the mountain, surrounded by greenery, the dwarf vanishes, and the shepherd boy believes it was for him, all just a dream.