I... I don't...
This poem is tagged 'Incomprehensible' and 'Trigger Warning' because it may depict paedophilia.
(Poem no. 49 out of 54, located pg. 128 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.
Big in Japan
This is the sad story
Of a man at the court
Because under a woollen coat
He is hiding a testicular weight
This serves him well for the purpose
Of frightening small children
So he went to the kindergarten
The brats stared at the stranger
He opened his coat wide
To display his skill
The girls laughed at his disgrace
There he laid another three kilos
As difficult as the weight never was
The scrotum tore off
The artist screamed
Original Meter: Mostly tetrameters, mixed iambic and trochaic.
Original Rhyme Scheme: AABB. Last two lines should be counted as one.
Comments: I still don't get it.
'Woollen coat' is 'Lodenmantel' - 'Loden' being a kind of woollen fabric of Tyrolean origin as seen here. 'Sack' I have also translated as 'scrotum' considering the situation.
This may be one of Till's apparent commentaries towards events he read about in the news, or something else entirely. It could be that the translation is killing it, but either way it all makes for one bizzarre experience.
I wonder if this is taken from the headlines again, and the key would be found in a Japanese news archive...
ReplyDeleteFor me this poem means a japanese man showing his manhood.
ReplyDeleteWhile the girls are laughing at him because it is small.
Thats why i think the titel of the poem is Big in Japan.
Maybe it means that a japanese man showed it in a foreign country were his manhood small and not average.
could the title be connected to Alphaville- Big in Japan?
ReplyDeleteWikipedia says: "Big in Japan is an expression that can be used to describe Western (especially North American or European) musical groups who achieve success in Japan but not necessarily in other parts of the world. However, the expression is commonly used ironically to mean successful in a limited, potentially comical, oddly specific, or possibly unverifiable way." So regarding to the title, since the exhibitionist is described in the last line as an "artist", it seems to me he could have success in his strange chosen form of "art", strapping weights to his balls and exposing himself to children. Funny Till humor ! 😂🤷♀️
ReplyDelete