Die Moritat von Mackie Messer [Version von 1948] [English translation]

And the shark, he has teeth;

he has them in his face.

And Macheath, he has a knife,

but no one sees the knife.

And the shark's fins are

red when he sheds blood;

Mack the Knife wears a glove

on which no sign of a crime can be seen.

On a beautiful, blue-skied Sunday

a dead man lies on the Strand

and someone turns the corner,

the one they call Mack the Knife.

And Schmul Meier's still not been found,

and many such a rich man

and his money has Mack the Knife,

against whom no one can prove anything.

Jenny Towler was found

with a knife in her chest

and on the embankment there's Mack the Knife,

who knows nothing of any of it.

And the great fire in Soho,

seven children and an old man.

In the crowd Mack the Knife, whom

one asks nothing, and who knows nothing.

And the underage widow,

whose name everyone knows,

woke up and was defiled.

Mack, what was your price?

And the [little] fish, they disappear.

But to the dismay of the court:

The shark is ultimately summoned,

but the shark knows nothing.

And he cannot remember,

And one can't get hold of him:

For a shark is no shark,

When one can't prove it.

• Artist:Bertolt Brecht