'Your flesh is a torn sail'.
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.
I See A Shooting Star
I see a shooting star
So from the centre of my lap
I will free a little black hair
And lay it in my soup
What it is and what it will be
Nothing will ever be the same.
Burial within a good acid
You've hardly changed at all
Only the gestures seem a little wild
My beloved, my precious
I drink in the dust of this image
Your flesh is a torn sail
The poor soul on the balance
Your skin is a deeply plowed earth
The little hands without fingernails
What it was and what it would be -
It's too late for complaints now.
Notes: The only italicized line is probably one of the most important ones that can make or break the text, and unfortunately I must show that I do not actually know completely what to make of this. I bolded and italicized the perfectly straightforward 'Your flesh is a torn sail' for the simple reason outlined below.
Comments: I'd comment on how morbid Till is and how creepy this poem turned out to be despite the initially sweet-sounding title but really at the moment all I can think of is how whenever 'shooting star' appears in his poems, he then has to rhyme it with 'soup' ('Sternenschnuppe'/'Suppe'). He did this in Komm Ich Koch Dir Eine Suppe as well.
'Dein Fleisch ist ein zerrissenes Segel' is the quote chosen for the back cover of 'Messer' and I thought that was perhaps important to note.
EDIT (14th/03/2012): I posted this on 2am so I was kinda groggy but now I've read it over again and I thought perhaps this poem might be about a baby in the womb, somehow. The picture for this poem features a mannequinish!Till covering the eyes of a child mannequin and pointing towards the distance. There's also the 'little hands without fingernails' thing too, babies don't have fingernails in the womb. Just a thought. Still sort of creepy though.
I think of it as regret for an abortion. Men often suffer emotionally too.
ReplyDeleteMaybe a little help here--German for a miscarried/stillborn infant is "Sternenkind" which my (admittedly terrible) understanding comes out literally as "Star Child."
ReplyDeleteAs in -- a shooting star, full of wishes and over far too fast.
Marvellous translation.
ReplyDeleteIn relation to soup, in addition to the rhyming, well, there is a German saying "Ein Haar in der Suppe finden" that refers to having a pessimistic/negative critical outlook.
So maybe, as the star reminds him of the unborn child, and considering the repetition of "what it was and what it could be" maybe it ties into the poem's last line; it is too late now, so thinking/complaing about it just hurts him (the hair is from himself, the lap - just as the child was; in thinking about it he's tearing himself apart with pain)?