Sorry for the compuglitch. As I was saying,


          "Ah, if yet you lived, you lovely maid,
          I should have loved you from this moment on!"

          The second pulled the curtain to,
          And turned away and wept besides:

          "Alas, that you lie dead upon this bier,
          For I *have* loved you so many years!"

          The third rose up again at once,
          And kissed her on her lips so pale:

          "I've *always* loved you, I love you still today,
          And I *will* love you into Eternity!"

A literary English translation appeared by about 1856, but I have not yet dredged it up. The poem was eventually set to music, but I do not know what the music sounded like.

The suffix "-lein" is often translated as "little," but I believe it conveys strong overtones of "sweet" in this context.

What if anything the English bawdy song owes to Uhland's poem seems to be a matter of opinion only. The earliest recovered texts of the bawdy song, by the way, have only one German (or "Dutch") protagonist, not three.

Am open to comments and suggestions.