1. Wherever the eye spies

Only swamp and meadow all around

Birdsong does not refresh us,

The oaks remain bare and crooked

 

Refrain: We’re the swamp soldiers

And we go into the swamp

with shovels.

 

2. Here in this terrible meadow

The camp is set up,

Where we are far from every joy

Stowed away behind barbed wire.

 

3. The columns (of prisoners) move out in the morning

Into the swamp to work

Digging by the blazing of the Sun

But home stays in their minds

 

4. Homeward, homeward, each one longs

For their parents, wife and child

Sighs stretch many a chest,

Because we're imprisoned here.

 

5. The guards go up and down

No one, none can get past (them).

Fleeing would only cost one's life

The fort is fenced four times around.

 

6. But we won't complain,

Winter can't last forever.

One day we'll say joyfully:

Home, you're mine again.

 

Then the swamp soldiers

will go into the swamp

With shovels, nevermore.