One example of toning it down - though I don't know, maybe the toning down occurred in the original as well.

Lili Marlene - "written by a German private in World War One, Hans Loep, in honour, not as is commonly assumed, of one girl but two - Lili and Marlene, who used to wait for him in the evenings underneath the lamplight across the barrack square." (Kiss Me Goodnight Sergeant Major, ed Martin Page, 1973.)