The Little Match Girl Lyrics - Sarantos

The Little Match Girl 

By Hans Christian Andersen 

Most terribly cold it was; it snowed, and was nearly quite dark, and 

evening-- the last evening of the year. In this cold and darkness there went 

along the street a poor little girl, bareheaded, and with naked feet. 

When she left home she had slippers on, it is true; but what was the good 

of that? They were very large slippers, which her mother had hitherto 

worn; so large were they; and the poor little thing lost them as she 

scuffled away across the street, because of two carriages that rolled by 

dreadfully fast. 

One slipper was nowhere to be found; the other had been laid hold of by 

an urchin, and off he ran with it; he thought it would do capitally for a 

cradle when he some day or other should have children himself. So the 

little maiden walked on with her tiny naked feet that were quite red and 

blue from the cold. She carried a quantity of matches in an old apron, and 

she held a bundle of them in her hand. Nobody had bought anything of her 

the whole livelong day; no one had given her a single farthing. 

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She crept along trembling with cold and hunger -- a very picture of sorrow, 

the poor little thing! 

The flakes of snow covered her long fair hair, which fell in beautiful curls 

around her neck; but of that, of course, she never once now thought. From 

all the windows the candles were gleaming, and it smelt so deliciously of 

roast goose, for you know it was New Year's Eve; yes, of that she thought. 

In a corner formed by two houses, of which one advanced more than the 

other, she seated herself down and cowered together. Her little feet she 

had drawn close up to her, but she grew colder and colder, and to go home 

she did not venture, for she had not sold any matches and could not bring 

a farthing of money: from her father she would certainly get blows, and at 

home it was cold too, for above her she had only the roof, through which 

the wind whistled, even though the largest cracks were stopped up with 

straw and rags. 

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Her little hands were almost numbed with cold. Oh! A match might afford 

her a world of comfort, if she only dared take a single one out of the 

bundle, draw it against the wall, and warm her fingers by it. She drew one 

out. "Rischt!" how it blazed, how it burnt! It was a warm, bright flame, like 

a candle, as she held her hands over it: it was a wonderful light. It seemed 

really to the little maiden as though she were sitting before a large iron 

stove, with burnished brass feet and a brash ornament at top. The fire 

burned with such blessed influence; it warmed so delightfully. The little 

girl had already stretched out her feet to warm them too; but the small 

flame went out, the stove vanished: she had only the remains of the burnt- 

out match in her hand. 

She rubbed another against the wall: it burned brightly, and where the 

light fell on the wall, there the wall became transparent like a veil, so that 

she could see into the room. On the table was spread a snow-white 

tablecloth; upon it was a splendid porcelain service, and the roast goose 

was steaming famously with its stuffing of apple and dried plums. And 

what was still more capital to behold was, the goose hopped down from 

the dish, reeled about on the floor with knife and fork in its breast, till it 

came upon the poor little girl; when -- the match went out and nothing 

but the thick, cold, damp wall was left behind. She lighted another match. 

Now there she was sitting under the most magnificent Christmas tree: it 

was still larger, and more decorated than the one which she had seen 

through the glass door in the rich merchant's house. 

Thousands of lights were burning on the green branches, and gaily- 

colored pictures, such as she had seen in the shop windows, looked down 

upon her. The little maiden stretched out her hands towards them when -- 

the match went out. The lights of the Christmas tree rose higher and 

higher, she saw them now as stars in heaven; one fell down and formed a 

long trail of fire. 

"Someone is just dead!" said the little girl; for her only grandmother, the 

only person who had loved her, and who was now no more, had told her, 

that when a star falls, a soul ascends to God. 

She drew another match against the wall: it was again light, and in the 

lustre there stood the old grandmother, so bright and radiant, so mild, and 

with such an expression of love. 

"Grandmother!" cried the little one. "Oh, take me with you! You go away 

when the match burns out; you vanish like the warm stove, like the 

delicious roast goose, and like the magnificent Christmas tree!" And she 

rubbed the whole bundle of matches quickly against the wall, for she 

wanted to be quite sure of keeping her grandmother near her. And the 

matches gave such a brilliant light that it was brighter than at noon-day: 

never formerly had the grandmother been so beautiful and so tall. She 

took the little maiden, on her arm, and both flew in brightness and in joy 

so very high, and then above was neither cold, nor hunger, nor anxiety-- 

they were with God. 

But in the corner, at the cold hour of dawn, sat the poor girl, with rosy 

cheeks and with a smiling mouth, leaning against the wall--frozen to 

death on the last evening of the old year. Stiff and stark sat the child there 

with her matches, of which one bundle had been burnt. "She wanted to 

warm herself," people said. No one had the slightest suspicion of what 

beautiful things she had seen; no one even dreamed of the splendor in 

which, with her grandmother she had entered on the joys of a new year.