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!