Armes Deutschland,
kannst du deine Kinder sehen,
Wie sie vor dem Abgrund Schlange stehen.
Krankes Deutschland,
kannst du ihre Angst verstehen,
wenn sie schlafen gehen.
La Le Lu,
nur der Mann im Mond schaut zu,
wenn die armen Kinder schlafen,
drum schlaf auch du.
La Le Lu,
und das kleine Herz friert zu,
wenn die andren Kinder fragen:
Wie viel hast du?
Sandmann, Sandmann,
mach die Lichter aus,
die Wahrheit ist grausam,
drum schenk mir einen Traum.
Sandmann, Sandmann,
komm zu mir nach Haus,
streu mir Sand in meine Augen
Und weck mich nie wieder auf
Armes Deutschland
Kannst du deine Kinder sehen
Wie sie langsam vor die Hunde gehen?
Reiches Deutschland
Wann wird dir der Spaß vergehen
Wann wirst du verstehen?
La Le Lu,
nur der Mann im Mond schaut zu,
wenn die armen Kinder schlafen,
drum schlaf auch du.
La Le Lu,
und das kleine Herz friert zu,
wenn die andren Kinder fragen:
Wie viel hast du?
Sandmann, Sandmann,
mach die Lichter aus,
die Wahrheit ist grausam,
drum schenk mir einen Traum.
Sandmann, Sandmann,
komm zu mir nach Haus,
streu mir Sand in meine Augen
Und weck mich nie wieder auf
Trocken Brot macht Wangen rot
Der Junge lebt in großer Not
Er schrie sich schon die Lunge wund
Der Hunger brennt im Kindermund
Trocken brot macht wangen rot
Doch Jeder sitzt im eigenen Boot
Ich zeig dir jetzt was Wohlstand ist
Im Land das seine Brut vergisst
Sandmann, Sandmann,
mach die Lichter aus,
die Wahrheit ist grausam,
drum schenk mir einen Traum.
Sandmann, Sandmann,
komm zu mir nach Haus,
streu mir Sand in meine Augen
Und weck mich nie wieder auf
kannst du deine Kinder sehen,
Wie sie vor dem Abgrund Schlange stehen.
kannst du ihre Angst verstehen,
wenn sie schlafen gehen.
nur der Mann im Mond schaut zu,
wenn die armen Kinder schlafen,
drum schlaf auch du.
und das kleine Herz friert zu,
wenn die andren Kinder fragen:
Wie viel hast du?
mach die Lichter aus,
die Wahrheit ist grausam,
drum schenk mir einen Traum.
komm zu mir nach Haus,
streu mir Sand in meine Augen
Und weck mich nie wieder auf
Kannst du deine Kinder sehen
Wie sie langsam vor die Hunde gehen?
Wann wird dir der Spaß vergehen
Wann wirst du verstehen?
nur der Mann im Mond schaut zu,
wenn die armen Kinder schlafen,
drum schlaf auch du.
und das kleine Herz friert zu,
wenn die andren Kinder fragen:
Wie viel hast du?
mach die Lichter aus,
die Wahrheit ist grausam,
drum schenk mir einen Traum.
komm zu mir nach Haus,
streu mir Sand in meine Augen
Und weck mich nie wieder auf
Der Junge lebt in großer Not
Er schrie sich schon die Lunge wund
Der Hunger brennt im Kindermund
Doch Jeder sitzt im eigenen Boot
Ich zeig dir jetzt was Wohlstand ist
Im Land das seine Brut vergisst
mach die Lichter aus,
die Wahrheit ist grausam,
drum schenk mir einen Traum.
komm zu mir nach Haus,
streu mir Sand in meine Augen
Und weck mich nie wieder auf
Add your song meanings, interpretations, facts, memories & more to the community.
Poor Germany Can you see your children As they stand in line before the abyss
Sick Germany Can you understand their fear when they go to sleep
La le lu And only the man in the moon looks on When the poor children sleep So you sleep too
La le lu And the little heart freezes when the other children ask 'How much do you have?'
Sandman, sandman Shut off the lights The truth is horrible So send me a dream
Sandman, sandman Come to me at my house Sprinkle sand in my eyes And never wake me again
Poor Germany Can you see your children as they slowly go to the dogs
Rich Germany When will you abandon your celebration when will you understand
La le lu And only the man in the moon looks on When the poor children sleep So you sleep too
La le lu And the little heart freezes when the other children ask 'How much do you have?'
Sandman, sandman Shut off the lights The truth is horrible So send me a dream
Sandman, sandman Come to me at my house Sprinkle sand in my eyes And never wake me again
Dry bread makes cheeks red The boy lives in great distress He screams until his lungs are sore The hunger burns in the child's mouth
Dry bread makes cheeks red The boy lives in great distress He screams until his lungs are sore The hunger burns in the child's mouth
Sandman, sandman Shut off the lights The truth is horrible So send me a dream
Sandman, sandman Come to me at my house Sprinkle sand in my eyes And never wake me again
The 'la le lu' part and the first part of the chorus is from a German lullaby.
The video clearly indicates that this song is about poverty in Germany. It takes place decades ago (I dont know the time period, maybe the 1900s, maybe 1930s. It centers on a little girl who feels pity for the poor children, even though her rich family hates them. At one point her father even shoos one away like it's a stray dog. The video keeps showing a man in black robes carrying an hourglass stalking the children. At one point he kidnaps them, and the poor and rich family have to go out and search for them together. It then shows a screen that just reads 'in 2009 there are 1.5 million children in Germany living in poverty'. It then shows the parents finding their children under a tree and the video ends there.
I think the main meaning is obvious, but I dont understand the meaning behind the sandman, who I'm guessing is the robed man stalking the children. That robed man btw does appear to be a supernatural entitity since he keeps appearing then disappearing into thin air.
Shadowsoul is right - though since I don't speak any German I have to take your word for it that this is an accurate translation. As long as that's the case, I agree with the synopsis completely. As for the who the sandman is and what he's doing in the song/video, I believe it has everything to do with the words of the chorus. "Sandman, sandman shut off the lights; The truth is horrible so send me a dream. Sandman, sandman come to me at my house; sprinkle sand in my eyes and never wake me again." The sandman is the anthropomorphic personification of sleep and dreams, just like Father Time and the Grim Reaper. So the singer is asking for the sandman to take let him sleep forever cause he doesn't like what he sees when he's awake, basically.
I agree with the above two comments, but I think the song is also about a different kind of poverty...being too materialistic maybe? Cause if you watch the video, you can see that the poor boy is close to to his family and he and his siblings are just happy to get a piece of bread for dinner (or whatever the father brought). Although they don't have much, they seem to be happy....but the middle-class family doesn't seem to be very close, even though they can afford to live comfortably. The little girl is lonely and her parents don't pay much attention to her.
So maybe it's also about parents buying their children's love? Or maybe I'm totally wrong :)
First of all I'd like to correct the translation:
Its not twice:
Dry bread makes cheeks red The boy lives in great distress He screams until his lungs are sore The hunger burns in the child's mouth
The second time its changed into (Translation word by word... Meaning parenthesized):
Dry bread makes cheeks red But everybody sits in his own boat (German expression for "But everybody has to care about his own problems") I'll show you whats wealth now In a country which forgets about its children.
Apart from this the translation is almost perfect.
And for the person of the sandman: The sandman is a person which is told to throw sand into childrens eyes and gets them their this way. When the person wakes the sand gets rubbed out of the eyes. Originally he was used as a bugbear to get children to sleep with horrible storys. But today he is known as a more kind person who just gets children to sleep and is responsible for nice dreams. This mythos even made it to a nice serial for little children in the german television. The "Sandmännchen" (diminutive of "Sandmann") is shown in the late evening and travels to some random children. There it "shows" them a story (by manipulating a televisor, a sea or something like that. Its something magical after all ;). This is to represent that the Sandmännchen brings us our dreams) and afterwards grabs into its bag where it stores its sand and throws it at the children which get very tired afterwards and start to sleep. The Sandmännchen checks wether they all are ok finally leaves the same way he appeared. This most likely is the version the sandman of the song is supposed to be. The sandman gets asked to make the narrator to sleep so he doesnt has to watch all this pain anymore.
The song basicly is supposed to imply at first glance that there were lots of poor people after the world war 1 and during the economic crisis in the decades after it. People are supposed to belive they understand that the song implies how bad it was back then. But when you see the message about the poor children in 2009 you get to realize there still are Millions of poor people even in germany. The country where you live. A quite well developed country. So unfortunately I do have to disagre with yayitsari: Its exactly about that kind of pooverty.
Joschy