Ghost of lost love:

Sweet Kate, open your gate, here I stand in the wind.

Thread bare, snow in my hair, how I need you again.

For lone stalks the hunter's moon, time takes her toll.

Love, please, mercy on me and my poor wandrin' soul.

Kate, mein Lieb, öffne das Tor, ich steh' hier im Wind.

Zerlumpt, Schnee im Haar, ich sehn' mich so nach Dir, mein Kind.

Allein jag' ich im Mond des Nachts, die Zeit nagt an mir.

Liebste, bitte, erbarme Dich,

mein' Seel irrt und will zu Dir.

Kate:

Love is a star that will not shine 'till the hour of your return.

I count the days in cups of wine and the candles I have burned.

And sunrise comes only when I am far away

In dreams or when the black thunder rolls.

I cannot save my own sad heart nor your poor, poor wandrin' soul.

Die Liebe ist wie ein Stern der nicht mehr scheinen will

bis zur Stunde Deiner Wiederkehr.

Ich zähl die Tage in Gläsern voll Wein

und den Kerzen für Dich im Fenster.

Und Sonne scheint nur, wenn ich weit weg bin

in meinen Träumen, wo der schwarze Donner grollt.

Ich rett' nicht mal mein eigen traurig' Herz

Und schon gar nicht Deine arme wandelnde Seel.

Ghost of lost love:

I heard the grey wolf sing her serenade at night
But you never held me by the light of day
I climbed the redwood tree and caught the wren in flight
But her wings were soft as morning and the morning slipped away

Ich hört den grauen Wolf, er sang nachts seine Serenade

Doch niemals trafst Du mich am hellen Tage

Auf dem Mammutbaum fing ich den Zaunkönig im Flug

Doch seine Flügel schmolzen wie der Morgen, und der Morgen verflog...

Together:

Open the gate love

So many candles

Suddenly morning slips away from me

and the wax heart weeps and blisters

and its burning where he kissed her

and the ghost of lost live whispers:

Sweet Kate....

Öffne die Tür, Liebste....

So viele Kerzen

und das Morgen schwindet hin...

Und das Wachsherz weint und knistert

und der Geist der verlornen Liebe flüstert:

Kate mein Lieb....

Original: Dave Carter

additional german lyrics: ©HSR March 2009

Those of you who may not have been blessed enough to see Dave and Tracy perform this live may not know that Dave always introduced the song with a background story. It's about as heartbreaking as the song itself, and since we'll never have the opportunity to hear Dave do it again, I thought it might be nice to transcribe it here:

Long time ago, there was this boy and this girl. And stop me if you've heard this, but they fell in love. And stop me if you've heard this, but he promised her that he would stay with her forever. Well he meant it, at the time. But after all too short a time, the call of the open road proved too great for him, and he took off running, right on down it.

Still, she believed that some day he would return to her. And so every night, she would burn a candle in anticipation of his return. This went on for weeks, and months, and years, this burning of candles. It went on for almost twenty years. And just as she was coming right up on that twenty year mark, well, she was running mighty short on candles. In fact, she was down to her very last candle.

But you know that just as that last candle was flickering and sputtering and about to go out, and just as the first winter snowflakes were beginning to fall beneath the midnight sky, she thought she heard his voice at her garden gate. Or maybe it was his ghost, after all those years of being gone. Or maybe it was only the wind. But either way, they had this little conversation, which we call "Kate and the Ghost of Lost Love."