Apfeltraum [English translation]

I was sleeping beneath the apple tree

Which was ripe with apples

When I had an apple dream

In a minor key

Every apple had a face

Each one crying bitterly

And the apple tree

Bowed down towards me

"Jolt and jog me, stranger

For the load I carry is much too heavy

Why don't you dream your dream

Under the apple tree afterwards"

There came a bird, sat down on a branch

And it was the golden girl

From the fairytale1

"Listen, my friend"

She said

"This tree belongs to the old man

In the cottage next door"

"If you're able to -

For he is in a very bad way -

Help him

Crane your neck and stretch2

I awaken you from your dream

Don't you act up!

Help the old man

And his tree"

I woke up, almost like a drunkard

And I found: nothing but a fantasy

Were the apple dream

And the golden girl

I picked the apples, gave them to the man

Who hadn't been to his garden

For seven long years, as he told me

"Seven years can be mute and blind

Even more so than a dream"

The sick man said

And offered to me out of gratitude - the apple tree

1. Referencing the German fairy tale "Frau Holle". Most translations render "Goldmarie" (lit. "golden Mary") simply as "the golden girl". http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/diamondstoads/stories/holle.html2. "Recken und strecken" is a poetic duplication, just like "rütteln und schütteln" above.