The man at the end of the Dike (translated version)

A man that lived at the end of the Dike, but was rarely seen.

The people in the village didn't know what to do with him.

During the day he sat in his little room with a pipe in his hand. His whole

The house smelled of smoke, but he didn't do anything about it.

He didn't even think of himself, only of his lantern.

This lantern sat every day, only

Rightly so, on his living room table. He never read that lantern from his eye.

Not even when he went to sleep. The last thing he saw each night was the lantern.

which shone as brightly as that night.

Many people in the village thought

based on how he looked or how he sounded.

Was he tall and old? Was he small?

And young? Or perhaps he was even bald, and that's why he went bald?

Didn't look? Was his as long as a witch's? Perhaps even, which embittered him,

and now longed for solitude?

No, that's not how it all was, he

He was of medium height, he had just turned 30, and his hair had only been shaved once.

Cut, the nose not long but not short either. Bitter, this was

He didn't either; he longed for only one thing: the joy of life.

Now when one day someone

The man dared to knock on the door, thought once, then twice, until on the third time he

Finally, the door opened.

There in front of him stood a girl with short hair and a pale face.

He didn't look very healthy; after all, it was winter, and everyone in the village was freezing.

They looked up at him and grinned.

with an embarrassed look. It was the first time this man had ever been to the front door.

It was there. Nobody knew when he had moved in; the house had simply been lit up ever since.

That night.

So she was somewhat horrified when she glanced past him.

Her gaze went from the clock to the chair.

to the little room.

There she saw the smoke of the

He ascended, leaving the pipe there as he opened the door.

"That's no trouble at all! So alone

"One shouldn't live, that's not fair."

"How should one live then, young lady?"

You interrupted me in my own home. And so late in the day, too.

Even his voice, despite all the smoking, sounded as if he were...

Never before in my life had it caused me any distress. Light and distant. No appeal.

"One should live with someone, not alone"

"It's too lonely."

"I already live with

Someone, now go home before it gets too dark. You don't want to.

that something happens to you."

She started past him again,

And he was absolutely right about that.

The whole house had everything

Twice, the chairs, the shoes, the coat, and the hats too. But the lantern

Only once, there she stood, on the table in his little room.

She nodded once and turned around.

As she was about to leave, she must have heard something coming from the apartment, but not

something beautiful.

A scream, now it can...

It didn't belong to anyone. Whose was it then? She didn't think and just ran.

away.

However, the very next day

She was gone. Her parents searched desperately for her. They asked everyone where she was.

she could be there.

"Perhaps at the end of the dike?"

"Just take a look at the house."

at the end of the dike?”

“I saw them at the old house

Last seen. Where the man lives now.”

“I last saw Liselotte on

She saw the dike. There she spoke with a man.

Everyone was saying the same thing now.

They knew where to go.

Having arrived at the end of the dike,

They knocked on the door of the house where the girl had spent the night.

Now they stood there, with the door

wide open, with the man standing in front of him and his gaze on you

directed.

“What do you want?” he asked.

He was initially very patient.

"Our daughter is back."

"Unfortunately, I don't know your daughter; I never speak to people from that village."

"Someone, not even a girl. But they'll surely find her soon."

The two looked at each other,

Before they had to leave, they had barely turned their backs on the man,

Then they heard a scream.

But it could now happen to a human being

do not belong.

That night, there he sat

He sat back down in his chair and rocked slowly from front to back. The pipe in

of his hand, and lantern standing in front of him.

Smoke billowed out of his

Munde and choked the room. As before, he stared at the casing of the fire.

His eyes were now full of life, and a smile was on his face.

However, what didn't bother him was

disturbed the girl in the flames.

Her burning little hands beat

against the glass, your parents too. Their bodies not as before, but

It was burning hot, but they suffered no harm from it. The flame shone brightly, like…

The man always liked it, he enjoyed the warmth very much, even with Danne's shouting.