Tod und Teufel [English translation]

On a dim1 winter evening

Coldness crept into my house

Grasped me with clammy fingers

And dragged me out into the snow

In front of my house two riders where standing

The coats where black and red

Dressed in red was the devil

Completely in black godfather death2

The sun fled to hide behind the mountains

Then death started talking:

"Your life is running short3

Tell me, have you done it right4"

Devil jumped off of his black horse

Holding a pergament in his hand

He declaimed I'd be a minstrel

(I'd) be a sinful entity

Life is a game of dice

And your soul is the pledge

You don't need to know the rules

Grab your dices with your hand5

In this game there's no going back

The sand is trickling away6 in your clock

Grab your dices with your hand

Grab your dices with your hand

But following the old custom of mistrels

It's law and it's convention

To gamble for ones life of vice

(And to) bet ones breath of life

Devil throws the first round

Three times six like it's due to him

Pale I'm throwing the bony dices

As death's hand touches me

Life is a game of dice

And your soul is the pledge

You don't need to know the rules

Grab your dices with your hand

In this game there's no going back

The sand is trickling away in your clock

Grab your dices with your hand

Grab your dices with your hand

The dices remain on their edge

Helt by the gaze of death

He smiles into the grim mien of the devil

And says: "That was a foul trick"

Because the devil wanted to fool me

I get a bit more time

To cheat death is a sacrilege

Since death also means justice7

1. or "gloomy", "cloudy" or "murky"2. "Gevatter Tod" is an often used but old fashioned expression for the grim reaper3. literary "goes to decline"4. in the sense of "have you lived a 'good'/righteous life5. Literary "take your dices into your hand". It reminds of the idioms "(etwas) in die Hand nehmen" ("take the initiative (of something)") and " die Beine in die Hand nehmen" ("take one's heels")6. or, in context of time, "passing by"7. in the sense of "death (the person or the word) is also called justice" or "when there is death there'll also be justice"