Ut mine Festungstid

From Ut mine Festungstid, Fritz Reuter's account of his year's in prison for treason:

Den Nahmiddag kamm de Inspekter tau mi un makte mi de Anzeig', dat ick ok 'ne Stun'n up den Hof spazieren kunn, 't wir allerdings noch nich von de Kummandantur anordniert; äwer hei wull dat up sine Kapp nemen, denn ick müßt jo doch an de Luft. – Ick namm dat denn girn an, un as ick up den Hof kamm, markte ick denn, dat dat Däuweder was, un dat de Snei ballte. Um mi nu 'ne gaude Motschon tau maken, wölterte ick grote Sneiballen tausamen un set'te sei upenanner, bet 'ne Ort von Postament farig was, un dunn namm ick en rechten schönen witten Sneiklut un fung dormit an tau kneden un tau pusseln, bet ick 'ne Ort von Bostbild farig hadd, un as ick min Makwark neger betrachten ded, dunn sprüng mi 'ne Ähnlichkeit mit den ollen, braven Dr. Martin Luther entgegen, ick makte em de Backen en beten dicker un de Näs' en beten stuwer, un dor stunn hei liksterwelt. Dat was grad kein Kunstwark; äwer, as de Upwohrer K. nahsten, üm mi wat Schöns tau seggen, säd, en jeder künn doch seihn, dat't en Mannsminsch un kein Frugensminsch sin süll.

Tranlated from Low German by Carl Bayerschmidt:

In the afternoon the warden came in and announced that I would be permitted to go out for a walk for one hour. To be sure, the permission had not yet come down from the commandant's headquarters, but he was assuming full responsibility for his action, because I had to have some fresh air. I accepted gladly, and as I went down into the courtyard, I noticed that a thaw had set in and that the snow was sticking. In order to get a little exercise, I rolled some big snowballs together and placed one on top of the other until I had made a pedastal. Then I took a nice white lump of snow and began to work on it and shape it until I had fashioned a sort of bust. When I looked at my work of art more closely, I was struck by its resemblance to good old Dr. Martin Luther. I filled out his cheeks a little and also flattened his nose a litte, and there he stood true to life. It really wasn't such a great work of art, but the jail attendant, K., in order to say something nice about it, later remarked that anyone could see that it was a man and not a woman.