Till Lindemann's 'Messer' - "Durch Dick und Dünn"

The purpose of furniture is to be used according to their owners’ will.
Let me be that if nothing else.

(Poem no. 14 out of 54, located pg. 40 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.


Through Thick and Thin

Love’s wind blows weakly
As the man kisses the fat woman
The soul, deep in water, lies
The woman takes all she can get

You are young
And I am kind
I have a soft double bed
And every ship does need a port -
Why do you not want me to sleep?

I am not young
You are not kind
I am ugly, you are fat
But in a storm, any port will do;
And you’ll be rested when morning comes.

Original Meter: Truncated trochaic tetrameter for most part. The first two lines of the second and third stanzas should count as one line each.



Original Rhyme Scheme: AABB.

Comments: You could interpret this in two ways, I suppose.

One is my original reading of this poem, that this may be a pseudo-portrait of Till in his youth, frustrated and devoted at the same time. Inadequacies bleeding through. This may be making a mistake by conflating the persona of this poem with Till.

The second may be a variation on sowing wild oats, as such. The persona being so desperate that he’d do it with anyone. A much emptier and probably a more depressing interpretation, I think.