Holy shit.
[Updated 16th Dec 2012]
(Poem no. 51 out of 54, located pg. 134 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.
Superstition
An eyelash falls down from my eye
I wish myself
That she were dead
And were no more.
Original Meter: Iambic. First line is tetrameter, others are duometers. I have managed to replicate this in this translation.
Original Rhyme Scheme: None. Also replicated in the translation.
Comments: ‘Eyelash’ was just ‘hair’ (‘Haar’) in the
original text. But there are indeed superstitions regarding eyelashes
that have fallen out and this is what Till is talking about.
I would really like to know why that wish out of everything. I should
not mistake the persona of the poem for Till - easy mistake to make -
but I do wonder.
I don't know if what I'm going to say make sense, but what comes to my mind is a superstition very common in my country (which has a huge influence of German culture in some states, mostly in the one where I live), which basically consists in having a fallen eyelash between your thumb and someone else's stuck together facing each other(not sure if I'm explaining it properly...english is not my first language). You both make a wish (not telling to each other), and then separate the thumbs: the one who's got the eyelash "glued" on their thumb will have their wish granted. Crazy shit, I know.
ReplyDeleteDunno if this comes especifically from German culture (as I live in a multicultural country), but it kind of sounds like what the poem seems to be about...
I'm aware of the superstition itself, where you make a wish on an eyelash. I did look it up when I first translated this one.
DeleteBut what surprised me, really, was the content of the wish itself. Eyelash wishes would be something like, a bit of money, a bit of good luck, and something like that usually. No biggie. But his eyelash falls and he wishes for a woman to die. Why? What is going on there?
Till's thought process is intensely fascinating. It shows particularly well in this poem precisely because of its short length, I think.