Freiheit

With the lack of punctuation in the official lyrics, and with how Der Graf sings it, I guess it could either be a question (Should you be quiet?) or an admonition (You should be quiet.). Not earth-shattering, but it makes it sort of both -- the world tells us we should be quiet about our lives and our loves and our hopes and dreams, and most certainly, the world tells us we should all be the same, and anything different should be hushed up.

But should it?

The message of this song is that as long as you are alive, you should act alive. Express yourself, allow yourself truly to be and feel and do what you are and want to be.

nadjacs: EXCELLENT translation. Major kudos.

But I think you're missing a minor subtle point of connotation, in context. Extremely understandable if you're not a native German speaker, or if you're young for that matter. :-)

Taking the first verse as an example:

Wenn du durch die Straßen gehst sollst du leise sein When you walk down the streets, you should be quiet. Yep! Perfect, but:

Meaning, when you walk down the street, without restriction

wenn du tust wovon du träumst When you do what you dream of Yep! But...

= when you are free to act as you wish, to pursue and fulfill your dreams

wenn du siehst woran du glaubst ... when you see what you believe

= when what you see conforms to your own beliefs (i.e., things look to you to be as they should be. See, that one's a little more obvious and can help cue us in on the rest.)

wenn du sagst was du denkst ... When you CAN say whatever you're thinking

Dann sollst du leise sein Then you should be quiet

= In these cases, you should be quiet. Muzzle it, don't complain, don't be strident unnecessarily. Don't be a nudge. :-) Be grateful for what you have.

wenn du spürst das du anders bist When you feel you are different, 100% right again. But minor nuance again:

= when you feel your situation is otherwise. D.h., when you DON'T walk freely down the street, when what you see DOESN'T conform to your beliefs, when you CAN'T do what you dream of, when you have to censor your speech, usw.

dann musst du lauter schreien

Then, you must cry out louder. I.e., you have a duty to make yourself heard. Don't tolerate your basic rights and freedoms being impaired by the government or anyone else.

Wenn ich spüre dass ich sterbe dann will ich leise sein Wenn ich fühle das ich lebe dann will ich lauter schreien

When I feel I'm dying, I'll want to be quiet. When I feel I'm alive I'll want to cry out louder. Yes again! Adding my minor point:

= If I become complacent and want to give up fighting for my rights, I might as well be dead.

That's why the song is called Freiheit--Freedom. :-) Freedom is precious. We should appreciate it when we have it, and we must fight for it when we don't have it.

Again, great job. And I can only hope my rather picky point is as helpful as what you posted. :-)

thanks :) it's been a while since I looked here (and I have a bunch more translations to post), but I think your points make the song a lot more meaningful to me ... thanks. :)

(and I'm not a native German speaker, no. so always happy to have comments and criticism, etc. :)

Great translation as well, would you happen to have a translation of "Kleine Puppe", or know of a site somewhere? Thanks