Fata Morgana [English translation]

Deep in the Sahara

on a dromedary

rides a German xplorer thru the grove of dates

When the mummy-outrooter sees

a girl named Laila;

Magic arousal penetrates his bone.

"Tell me who are you, who intoxicates me?" he yells,

"Come and heal my wounds!"

In saying: "I am Laila Queen of Night!"

Simsalabim! She is gone!

Like a Fata Morgana,

so near yet so far,

like a Fata Morgana.

Abarakadabara!

No longer there she was!

Following the chants,

to there where the date palm stands,

the delusion named Laila, peril he not saw.

An old Bedouin

sitting on a dune,

biting the coin, speaks: "As Allah wills!

Oh fine man I am called Hadschi Halef Ibrahim.

Liberate yourself from her charm!"

"Or else u are of death!" the prayer-caller yells,

And gone the old date-outpicker is.

Like a Fata Morgana,

so near yet so far,

like a Fata Morgana.

Abarakadabara!

No longer there he was!

The fine man crept

already less alive than dead

thru desert sand under bakin' sun.

"By the prophet's beard,

now bite the dust I must!"

In saying, his hand rises one final time,

and on the horizon the Fata Morgana he sees,

then dies in the land of Arabs.

The vultures overhead croak: "As Allah wills!

Another carcass at last!"

Like a Fata Morgana,

so near yet so far,

like a Fata Morgana.

Abarakadabara!

No longer there it was!

Like a Fata Morgana,

so near yet so far,

like a Fata Morgana.

Abarakidabari!

And gone is she!

• Artist:E.A.V.