| Rammstein – Mein Land Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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I do not believe that immigration--illegal or otherwise--is an aspect of Mein Land. The choice of directions seems to be intended to de-politicize them. Politically we talk about opposite directions: east vs. west, north vs. south. The directions in the song are first east to south, south to west, west to north, then north to east, east to west. This is not the wording a lyricist would use to express the divisive politics of immigration rhetoric. Furthermore, as stated by others Rammstein is politically left-leaning. All 6 members grew up in East Germany before the wall came down. They have made their views on a variety of issues explicitly clear in many songs. Rammstein's second album cover was created by an artist hated by European neo-nazis for a series of massive art installations humanizing victims of the holocaust. Mann Gegen Mann calls for straight men to tolerate their homosexual brethren. Links-2-3-4 is saying "they want my heart to beat right, but when I look inside I find it beats left!" though that has many levels of meaning and also applies to the critics who want to see them as nationalists to that they can be comfortably pilloried as well. They are also an extremely international band. They don't just sit in Germany making music for Germans, they have large fan bases worldwide, including in nations that have had historical tension with Germany such as France and Russia. Their live shows are a huge part of who they are as a band and have earned them recognition as having the best live show of any metal band in the world. They are very popular in Latin America and have said in interviews that their Mexican fans sing their lyrics louder than their fans in Germany do. You simply cannot run a Rammstein song through Google Translate and think you understand what it is about. Many of their songs are simply impossible to translate into English because there are layers of cultural idioms, and homophones or other plays on words that work in German that just don't work at all in English. Most of their songs do not have a simple meaning in any language. Also the printed lyrics only carry a portion of the story because many Rammstein songs have lyrics that are the same or similar throughout the song but where the meaning changes due to slight changes in the wording or the way the song is sung. I think there are at least 3 and maybe four layers in Mein Land. Initially the meaning of Mein Land seems very personal. Rammstein tours around the entire world. A lot. Every tour is a world tour on a level that no U.S. band does. So these guys spend a lot of time as foreigners in different places, going through customs in various nations etc. Probably getting asked a lot of questions like "Where are you going? Where?" and giving some trite answer like "I'm going alone from land to land." Note that the question sounds like a chorus by the band, while the answer is given by Till alone, suggesting "they ask this, I answer that." And since they sing in German many people worldwide see them as expressing German nationalism, metaphorically coming with their flag in their hands. And those people say offensive things like "You are here in my land! This is my land!" Second, if you watch the video, in the beginning Rammstein doing a video that is nothing like any other Rammstein video except their first one. Of that video they have said basically, "we wanted to do video and didn't know how to do it so we let people who knew how to do videos do it and it sucked so we stopped doing that and do things our way now." So this is not an expression of their style, it is presenting a satirical representation of social conservatism. The text at the beginning presents this part of the video as being set in 1964. This part of the video has a very vanilla theme based on an American cultural period recognized globally as being repressively conservative. This is taking their personal observation and expressing it in a more global context. In the end when the sun goes down, the text presents the setting as 2012 and the video turns into what one review calls "a carnal circus" with even more fire than usual for a Rammstein video and the band members in "Crow" like mime face paint smudged in a manner reminiscent of Ledger's Joker. One of the things Rammstein does in many of their songs is use the same lyrics in different contexts to mean very different things. In this case, the tactic is given away by the transition where Till screams the lyrics and beats his chest as he says "You are here in my land, My waves and my shore! Yeaaaah!!!" right before the switch to the "carnal circus" part of the video. During this sequence the lyrics are voiced in a much more aggressive fashion than in the first part and this seems to be saying that even if the nation is your land, when you come to their show you are on their ground now, and it is their land. A fourth layer is suggested by the later choruses. In one the words are stated as coming from the sky, or from heaven, and in the final chorus the lyrics express a deep sense of alienation. This suggests that they feel they are no longer citizens of their land, but of the world. And they can no longer relate to the parochialism of the people in the lands they visit, even their own. |
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| Rammstein – Feuer Frei! Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Heh, I was watching the official video and I was struck by something. I'd thought Till's antics were just him being crazy before, but there seems to be pretty consistent suggestions of simulated oral sex. Even some of the stuff that seems like things a rock start would do on stage could be really exaggerated simulations. I don't think it invalidates my primary interpretation, but it would be another layer of meaning. If so, "throw a light in my face" could double as a metaphor of a very different nature than the literal translation would suggest. He practically smacks himself in the face in both the official video and the Volkerball video which could strongly suggest splatter. The hard thrust into the womb and throwing sparks part still doesn't make much sense. He makes definite motions toward his groin in the Volkerball video, and he does waggle his tongue a bit during the official video so it could be another shading of meaning thing, or he could just be tossing a bone to us more conventionally-minded members of the fan base. Considering the amount of homoerotic themes that their music has, how willfully ignorant do you have to be to see them as Nazistic? Oh, somebody was wearing a WWII German army helmet in the Volkerball video. But it was Flake, the butt of all the jokes. And he was wearing it like a dork and his costume had really short-shorts with a psudo-uniform stripe on the side. |
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| Rammstein – Sehnsucht Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Thanks for the translation! Correlating this with other Rammstein songs I have to point out a few things the big bird pushes his head gently back into his hideout Between your long legs I search for last year's sand but there is no more sand there Seems to be similar to the idea of an ostrich with its head in the sand. It sounds like he's saying that things weren't working but he used sex to make him ignore that, but now he can't ignore it because he can't stick his "head" in the "sand" anymore. Just a thought. |
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| Rammstein – Links 2 3 4 Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I translate the last verse ideomatically as Can you ask your heart to Hold to the child inside Can your heart be given When you're thinking with your heart I like the saccrifice connotation mentioned above, maybe "Can your heart be saccrificed" Also I realize from the previous comments that saying you "hold a child beneath your heart" could be using the idea of pregnancy as a metaphor for carrying forward a revolutionary ideal. |
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| Rammstein – Engel (English) Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Rammstein doesn't translate their songs into english. They rewrite their songs in English. The english versions of their songs are NOT the same as the German versions. This translation is a correct literal and ideomatic translation. The Rammstein version is a rewritten song in English with a very different meaning. It is a beautifully written song but it loses a lot of the shades of meaning that the German version had. Specifically the English version is just about God and angels, while the German version is more about conformity and what people give up to be part of a group. |
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| Rammstein – Engel (feat. Bobo) Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Mue91's translation is very good. For my $.02 I use a bit different because it is more melodic and works more comforably for me in engilish (though I actually feel pretty comforable keeping most of the german syntaxt intact and letting it sound yodaish) while sill preserving the german meaning. I think the original German lyrics are more about conformity and what people give up to try to be part of a group, whether it is christian or the in crowd. The english lyrics are extremely different. It isn't even the same song. A few notes. Angst means fear but also specifically is used in existentialism to mean fear of failing in one's duty to god. So it is notable that angst is attributed to angels and I doubt that was a coincidence. Those who live well on earth Will be angels after death They live in heaven so you ask then Why it is you can't see them But when the clouds have gone to sleep Angels can be in heaven seen They are full of fear and so alone God he knows I will no angel be They live behind the sunshine Separated from us by a gulf so wide They must hand on to the stars so tight Ore else they'll fall from heaven's height But when the clouds have gone to sleep Angels can be in heaven seen They are full of fear and so alone God he knows I will no angel be |
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| Rammstein – Feuer Frei! Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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IMO, this is about violent revenge against a child molester. That's just what I read into it. I think most of the song is about the damage done by abuse and his anger and desire for revenge. I translate the gluck/ungluck part as "your pleasure is not my pleasure, it is my misery" which is a common translation even among those who don't share my hypothesis. Also the part "The child who is burned is dangerous, because of the fire that separates from life" makes a lot more sense in this context. The part about a hard thrust into the womb doesn't make as much sense in this context. So either I'm partially wrong, or this is complex. Most Rammstein songs are very complex so I'm guessing there are more wrinkles of meaning than I'm able to get. |
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| Rammstein – Mein Herz Brennt Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| Interesting correlation to child abuse. I didn't notice it here, but there are a lot of Rammstein songs that seem to reference it. Especially Feuer Frei and Speil Mit Mir | |
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