The Gingerbread Man Poem by August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben

I don't want any doll,
Dolls do nothing for me.
What can make me happy and delighted
is a gingerbread man.
Just a man with a body and clothes
completely made of candy.

More stately than a doll
is this honey guy.
A whole bunch of dolls
Cannot please me so.
But I look right at you,
And I pity you, dear man.

Because you are doomed to die -
I'm still so good to you,
Whether you've lost a leg.
Or if the other one hurts you,
Poor gingerbread man,
It doesn't help you, you cannot escape!

Translation by Lisa Yannucci, Monique Palomares and Christina Weising.