O liberales clerics
Nu merchet rehte wi dem si
Date: vobis dabitur
Ir suelt lan offen iwer tuer
Vagis et egentibus
So gewinnet ihr das himelhus,
Et in perenni gaudio
Alsus also, alsus also!
Pfarrherr, du kuehler, oeffne dein' Thor,
Fahrende Schueler stehen davor.
Fahrende Schueler, unstete Kind,
Singer und Spieler, wirbliger Wind.
Parson Sir Prudence, open your gate!
Travelling students your welcome await!
Travelling scholar, whimsical child!
Singer and stroller, the wind-whirling wild.
Iron throats for drinking—bellies like fires,
Gold souls unshrinking—which no one desires,
Thin garments sporting—weather so raw,
Ah—and our courting—on hay and in straw!
Parson, Sir Prudence, open your gate!
Travelling students your welcome await!
Suabia, Franconia have given us food,
Sans ceremonie—an all eating brood;
Fed us, rapacious, God keep them from harm!
Like the voracious and wild locust swarm,
What we've o'erpowered—once fertile and fair,
All is devoured—shorn barren and bare.
Parson Sir Prudence, open your gate!
Travelling students your welcome await!
Makest not thy oven free, miserly owl,
We'll haul thee to Coventry straight by the cowl.
Pull off your breeches, the shoes from your feet,
Hang them like fitches out here in the street;
He who would own it and do us a hurt,
He must atone it in stockings and shirt.
Parson Sir Prudence, open your tower!
Travelling students your bars will o'erpower!
Ho, ho, heiadihoh!
Avoy, avoy, alez avanz!
Alsus also, alsus alsus also!
Ho ho heiadihoh, hoh, ho, ho!