Rough, non-metric translation: Once there were five wild swans,
Swans so white and beautiful.
Sing, sing of what happened
None of them was ever seen again
Once there were five green birch trees,
Growing tall by the side of a brook
Sing, sing of what happened
None of them did ever bloom
Once there were five fine young men,
Went out proudly and bravely
Sing, sing of what happened
None of them ever came back
Once there were five lithe young girls,
Growing up on the Memel shore
Sing, sing of what happened
None of them ever was a bride
The Memel is a river in Poland, in an area that used to belong to Prussia called Memeland. The song is supposed to come from this area. However, there seems to be some connection with Pete Seeger's "Where Have All the Flowers Gone". He says he wrote it starting from a couple of lines from a Cossack song quoted in a Russian novel ("And Quiet Flows the Don"? I forget.) The structures of the songs are similar, and it seems quite possible that the same Cossack song was picked up by someone from the Memelland. Conjecture, though!
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