Lied to by Rammstein

[ciphergoth]

If you don't know the song, this won't make any sense to you.

"Du
Du hast
Du hast mich
Du hast mich gefragt
Du hast mich gefragt und ich hab nichts gesagt"

"You
You hate
You hate me
You hate me to say
You hate me to say, and I did not obey"

(Rammstein - Du Hast)

Wow, it rhymes in English too! The weird thing is, how come "gesagt" means "obey"? It looks like "say" to me.

(looks up "frage" in dictionary)

And "gefragt" means "question"? This isn't right!

And it isn't.

http://24.112.27.236/articles/counterpoint-1198.html

With the help of my handy German dictionary and Babel Fish, here's what I get:

"You
You have
You have me
You have asked me
You have asked me, and I said nothing."

"Willst du bis der Tod euch scheidet treu ihr sein für alle Tage? Nein!
Willst du bis zum Tod der Scheide sie lieben auch in schlechten Tagen? Nein!"

"Do you want, until death divorces you, to be faithful for her for all days? No!
Do you want, until the death of the sheath, to love her even on bad days? No!"

(contrast with the "official" translations: http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Disco/4752/lyrics.html)

Bloody hell. Lied to on the lyrics sheet printed with the album. *sigh*...

Comments

nitpicking (!)

[ajva.livejournal.com]

Hmmmmm. I'd argue for "part" instead if divorce, and of course "Scheide" can mean a number of things, including sheath of course and vagina, even.

So take your pick.

I think it's allowable to translate a bit loosely, though. But you're right, it does make it a different song.

[diffrentcolours]

As I understand it, most of Rammstein's lyrics are... uhm... less than politically correct, although more for sexual than pro-Nazi reasons. They put in the fake translations to get past lazy censors.

Isn't it ironic?

[booklectica]

For some reason, you inspired me to translate Alanis Morrissette's 'Ironic' into Spanish and back again using Babel. The result is rather poetic, I think.

...
Ninety-eight given to old return man he gained the lottery and died he is the following day a black fly in its Chardonnay that is a pardon of the death row two minutes too much of slow are not ironic he... you do not think Chorus Is like rain in its day of the wedding that is a free stroll when you have paid it already is the good advice who you cause sorrow you did not take to whom she thought would've that... its suitcase calculates Mr. Play It Safe was scared to fly it disc battery and kissed to its cabritos good bye that he hoped his whole damn life to take that flight and as the plane crashed down him that ' or he is not this pleasant one... ' and the life is not ironic... you you do not think the Chorus repetition or has an amused way to do furtively for above in you when you think that all acceptable and everything that goes to the right and the life has an amused way to help him towards outside when you think everything gone badly and everything above blows for in its face ** Time-out ** he to be one traffic clogging when you to be or slow he to be one of smokers does not show in his cigarette plows he to be like ten thousands spoon when all you to need to be one knife he to be to satisfy man my then dream and to satisfy its beautiful wife ironic... you not to think little too ironic... and yes true I to think... Chorus relaunching the life has an amused way to do furtively for above in which you it life have an amused way, amused to help outside helping him him towards outside

Rammstein Translations ...

[bootpunk.livejournal.com]

This has been a heated topic between my German-speaking mates & me ever since Rammstein released English versions of their songs. The lyrics for Du Hast and Engel are substantially different when translated into English, with Du Hast being completely odd - the second translation above is what the German actually says - and Engel being just plain shitty compared to the German. I guess "Only when you sleep in the clouds, can you see Heaven" is a bit hard to get to scan in English tho'. Hmmm, that page of translations you quoted looks pretty wide of the mark too - some of them look like they've been done by non-German speakers with German-English dictionaries.

There is a long history of this sort of thing tho'. Nena's 99 Red Balloons was a lot sillier than the German original. German seems to scan/rhyme easier than English at times. But my German is pretty lousy at the moment - I've started working on it again, as I'm probably in Switzerland for Xmas.