The air is cool and in twilight
The Rhine's dark waters flow;
The peak of the mountain in highlight
Reflects the evening glow.
There sits a lovely maiden
Above so wondrous fair,
With shining jewels laden,
She combs her golden hair
It falls through her comb in a shower,
And over the valley rings
A song of mysterious power
That lovely maiden sings.
The boatman in his small skiff is
Seized by a turbulent love,
No longer he marks where the cliff is,
He looks to the mountain above.
I think the waves must fling him
Against the reefs nearby,
And that did with her singing
The lovely Loreley.
Her beauty was her undoing.
Lorelei was not willfully seductive, but men could not resist her charms,
and she could not resist their advances.
She was bringing scandal and disgrace to the respectable town of Bacharach-on-the-Rhine.
There was even talk that she must be a witch or a woman possessed of the devil.
The bishop, however, would not hear of an execution without due process,
and he summoned her to his court.
His questions were at first stern and severe.
Her answers were simple and sincere.
The bishop's severity, his piety, and his priesthood,
however, did not prevail, and in the end he pronounced her free of all guilt.
"I cannot continue like this!" she cried.
"My eyes are the destruction of every man who looks into them.
I have loved only one man, and he abandoned me and left for a distant land.
Please let me die!"
But the good bishop could not bring himself to pronounce a death sentence.
Instead, he proposed that she dedicate herself to God,
and called three knights to accompany her to the convent.
Arrangements were made forthwith,
and the three knights were soon underway with their beautiful ward.
When their path led them past a high cliff overlooking the Rhine,
Lorelei had one last request of her escorts.
"Please," she said, "let me climb the cliff and have one last look into the Rhine."
Unable to deny her this wish, the three knights tethered their horses,
and the four of them climbed to the top of the cliff.
Standing at the edge of the precipice, Lorelei said, "See that boat on the Rhine.
The boatman is my lover!"
And with no further warning, she jumped from the cliff into the Rhine.
The three knights also met their death there, without a priest and without a grave.
Who is the singer of this song?
A boatman on the Rhine,
And we always hear the echo
Of the Three-Knight-Stone:
Lore Lay!
Lore Lay!
Lore Lay!
As though there were three of us.
Text von Clemens Brentano (1800)
I cannot divine what it meaneth,
This haunting nameless pain:
A tale of the bygone ages
Keeps brooding through my brain:
The faint air cools in the gloaming,
And peaceful flows the Rhine,
The thirsty summits are drinking
The sunset's flooding wine;
The loveliest maiden is sitting
High-throned in yon blue air,
Her golden jewels are shining,
She combs her golden hair;.
She combs with comb that is golden,
And sings a weird refrain
That steeps in a deadly enchantment
The listener's ravished brain:
The doomed in his drifting shallop,
Is tranced with the sad sweet tone,
He sees not the yawing breakers,
He sees but the maid alone:
The pitiless billwos engulf him!-
So perish sailor and bark;
And this, with her baleful singing,
Is the Lorelei's gruesome work.
Mark Twain (1880)
You told me tales of love and glory
Same old sad songs, same old story
The sirens sing no lullaby
And no-one knows but Lorelei
By castles out of fairy tales
Timbers shivered where once there sailed
The lovesick men who caught her eye
And no-one knew but Lorelei
Chorus:
River, river have mercy
Take me down to the sea
For if I perish on these rocks
My love no more I'll see
I've thought of you in far-off places
I've puzzled over lipstick traces
So help me God, I will not try
And then I think of Lorelei
I travel far and wander wide
No photograph of you beside me
Ol' man River's not so shy
And he remembers Lorelei
Chorus:
River, river have mercy
Take me down to the sea
For if I perish on these rocks
My love no more I'll see
If I should float upon this stream
And see you in my madman's dream
I'd sink into your troubled eyes
And none would know 'cept Lorelei
Chorus:
But if my ship, which sails tomorrow
You shone out of the darkness
She was drowned in suicide
Seagulls fly
The guilt is mine I was untrue
Seagulls fly
There she is I hear her cry
Seagulls fly
Tonight...far away from this pub
Far away even from the town
Sorrow betrays her comely face
The moon shall have dominion then
And she will dance wildly again
Alas the sweet faery Lorelei,
By John C. Cyr
By Ella Fitzgerald
Back in the days of knights in armor
She had a yen for all the sailors
She created quite a stir
I want to be like that gal on the river
She used to love in a strange kind of fashion
I'm treacherous, yeah-yeah
Each affair has a kick and a wallop
I want to be just like that other trollop
River, river have mercy
Take me down to the sea
For if I perish on these rocks
Should crash against these rocks,
My sorrows I will drown before I die
It's you I'll see, not Lorelei
The light in your eyes.
I could not help myself
I did not want to try.
Like the singing of the Lorelei
Your voice rang clear and true
Mystery and danger was all I got from you.
Oh, you mesmerized me, oh, you tantalized,
Like the singing of the Lorelei.
And you knew everything
There was to know about me.
Like the singing of the Lorelei
Your voice rang clear and true
Mystery and danger was all I got from you.
Oh, you mesmerized, oh, you tantalized
Like the voice of the Lorelei.
Faithless lover cast aside
This is how she came to be
Lorelei of the sea
Hopes destroyed, she wanted to find
Certain death peace of mind
Now you wonder who is she, Lorelei of the sea
Many tales I've been told of sailors having died
After seeing a mermaid known
Known as Lorelei
Faithless lover that is me
And she siren of the sea
So next time that the seagulls fly
Don't you cry sweet Lorelei
When mermaids cry
Those tears won't dry
For Lorelei
The question is what am I to do
All I know is I got to try
Try to find sweet Lorelei
Make amends for what's been done
'Cause I believe that she's the one
And I will go where seagulls fly
Try to find sweet Lorelei
When mermaids cry
Those tears won't dry
For Lorelei
She's asking me if I will die
There ain't nothing I won't do
For you Lorelei
When mermaids cry
Those tears won't dry
For Lorelei
A girl shall dance by the cool winding stream,
'Neath the tall uneven blackthorn tree
And sing a ballad to the wind and the trees.
Her large brown eyes search
For the quiet lad she once knew
Who walked in the twilight of the sidhe.
When she knows that he won't come
And the tear that falls from her cheek
Joins her stream and winds away.
Over all the spirits on the earth
And sweet Lorelei will smile
And forget her sorrows once more.
Under the sacred blackthorn tree
Until another lad passes her way
And his life to take with a song.
Who sing sweet ballads of love
While their lovers drown in streams
And wash away on tears of longing.
There once lived a lovely charmer
Swimming in the Rhine
Her figure was divine
Fishermen and gobs and whalers
She had a most immoral eye
They called her Lorelei
And I want to be like her
Who sang her song to the ships passing by
She had the goods and how she could deliver
The Lorelei
With lots of hey-ho-de-ho-hi-de-hi
And I can guarantee I'm full of passion
Like the Lorelei
Oh, I just can't hold myself in check
I'm lecherous, yeah-yeah
I want to bite my initials on a sailor's neck
For what they crave, I can always supply
I want to be just like that other trollop
The Lorelei
The Lorelei
