Solvitur acris Hiems

"Now chilly winter's vanished altogether;
Short nights are here, long days, and sunny weather.
A joyous season now doth bring
Delight once more to everything.
Never have I heard the birds so sweetly sing.

Now to our eyes a lovely sight uncloses;
The heath displays a wondrous wealth of roses.
The flowers thrust through the grass anew;
Rarely the meadow dripped with dew,
Where for a wreath my lover plucked them as they blew!

The wood forgets that it was gray and blighted,
For May upon a green branch hath alighted,
And store of leaves he now hath won.
Comrade, put thy head-dress on!
Well thou knowest, I go to meet a knight anon!"

The maiden's mother heard that in her hiding.
Quoth she, "These lies of thine there's no abiding!
Giddy art thou past compare.
Bind a kerchief round thy hair!
Join the throng, but never a dress thou'lt get to wear!"

"Mother mine, who gave this right unto you,
That for my raiment I should have to sue you?
Ne'er a thread you spun for me.
Let your rage and bluster be!
Quick, unlock the door, I say! Where is the key?"

A chest there was; the dress lay locked within it
A chair-leg burst it open in a minute.
The dame ne'er felt so sore a stroke.
When her press the maiden broke,
Hushed was her tongue and never a word she spoke.

She lifted out the smock without delaying;
It lay there, many a little fold displaying.
Her girdle was a riband small.
To the knight of Reuenthal
The merry maiden flung her speckled ball.