Once upon a time
There was a nest on a great lime,
Which was tall and almost reached the sky.


And in that nest there was a bird,
Which said to the lime that she had heard
From a cow in a herd,
Some time ago,
When there was snow,
That a woodcutter would come
And chop the lime down.


The bird said she’d never leave the lime alone,
Because it had been her home
Beginning so long ago.


The next day she called her chicks,
Who came armed with a lot of sticks
And thought about many tricks,
How to help the lime
Not to be wiped from under the sky.


One day winter came
And so began the pain
Day by day, night by night,
The cold chicks wondered why they should fight
And thought that they just might
Leave their mother alone one night.
Although she was so cold,
The bird stood alone against the hunger and the cold.


At last the woodcutter came,
Wanting to take some timber home that day,
Because he had a sick wife and a dog which had been stray.


Why destroy my home?
Because it is not your own,
And I desperately need wood,
So I can prepare some food,
Or else my wife will die,
And I’m telling you this is not a lie.


Without saying a thing,
The bird flew away like the wind,
Not hearing how the lime cried
Before it died.