Till Lindemann's 'Messer' - "3 x Fisch"

Like a love that could never last.

3 x Fisch is one of the most surreal poems I've had the fortune of translating. I wouldn't call it incomprehensible, but it is one extremely bizarre and sinister tale.

(Poem no. 22 out of 54, located pg. 60 of ‘Messer’, 2010 print.)

Disclaimer: Poem copyrighted to Till Lindemann. This post does not include photos/illustrations of said poem from 'Messer'. The original German text is also not included. This is only a interpretive translation and accuracy is not guaranteed.




3 x Fish

She sold fish
He doesn't eat fish
Thus soon he will have cats
He buys fish every day
So that he can see her
She starts laughing as he asks her
And goes with him out of pity
He has no words
He brings her home as it begins to rain
She talks of her father
Who had needles in the skull and is no longer living
He thinks how good the rain is;
He won't need to water his wife's grave bed.

She sold fish
He doesn't eat fish
He has cats
He buys fish everyday
So that he can see her
She gazes upon him
He doesn't notice
He asks if she would dine with him
She has fish
He wants dessert before soup
He brings her home as it begins to rain
She talks of children
That she cannot have
She has a wolf in the uterus
He thinks how good the rain is
Scraping the soup from his tongue

She sold fish
He vomits fish
The cats are dead
He buys fish everyday
Because she wants him to
So that she can see him
And as she asks him it begins to rain
He brings her home
She talks of her husband
Who has soft bones
Soft like those of fish
That it cannot be with her
She lives above a carpenter's shop and an old man
Then the carpenter shop would be nice.

Original Meter: There isn't one. I also checked the three stanzas to see if they share an overall stanza form but this doesn't seem to be the case.

Original Rhyme Scheme: There isn't one.

Comments: Well then.

Admittedly I cannot confess to this poem making much more sense than the first time around. I did eliminate all italics though, and I think this is much more correct.

The line about the 'wolf in the uterus' actually may refer to a medical condition. Dict.cc cites that 'Wolf' is also a term for intertrigo, a bacterial infection that occurs on the folds of the skin - and yes, it does affect the genitals as well. That's one mystery solved. As for what she meant about the carpenter shop ('Tischlerei')... that is still a mystery.