Wolfgang Ambros - De Kinettn wo i schlof (English Translation)

When in the morning the night

Loses out to the day

And when the first sunbeam

Strangles the last dusk

Then I wake up

In the trench where I sleep



The foreign workers are coming and I have to leave

Otherwise they will report me

So I just crawl out and clean off the dirt

As best as I can

So I get up

In the trench where I sleep



I have not shaved nor washed myself

For ten days

And I have nothing but a bottle of rum

In my coat pocket

I drink it for breakfast and then

I scrounge off a cigarette from somebody -

And a shilling



And people are coming towards me

Like a wall they are approaching me

It seems to me I'm the only one who's coming up to meet them (other possible meaning: who doesn't go in their direction)

But I pull myself together and at the first step

I close my eyes



It does not matter

If I work or not

Because for the thin monastery soup

It's enough if I pray

Leave me alone

Because today they fill up my trench