Tuesday 29 May 2012
Till Lindemann's 'Messer' - 'Freiheit'
I admit to translating this one mainly because of the final stanza. I'm a terrible person. XD
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.
Freedom
The wine from sweet grapes
I drink the sweat of the bars
They sing with the first bird
What I am and what I live
Knows the watchdog in the tower there
I sit on my bed
Look at my photos
Holding my child in my hand
As the time goes by
Behind stone and steel
Knows the watchdog in the tower there
In my distress
I had threatened the moon
With much anxiety
He then
In the tide of
The judge in the evening-gown
Now lies for me in liquid
The last friend I had
The nanny
Is also already dead.
Comment: I very nearly put this under 'incomprehensible', but I think there is a clear meaning to this that I in my sleep-deprived state am just having trouble following. It's just that, well, the final stanza just comes out of absolutely nowhere. XDDDD
As for what it could mean, my guess is that the child has something to do with it. But linking it to Till's own experiences and Nele would be jumping way, way ahead - assuming that all of those poems link to Till or aspects of his life is a very easy trap to fall into, and a very problematic one. One should refrain from that.
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This has to be about his "imprisonment" at the sports school, beginning at age 11. (Kids in the DDR had to decide what they were going to be at age 11! Paul liked the outdoors so they advised him to train as a border guard.)
ReplyDeleteTill liked to swim, poor kid. So they told his parents a lot of lies about the process at the sports "school" (doping factory) and he was very seldom let go home, and all those kids were severely warned not to tell their parents about the pills and shots ("vitamins") and the suicides and the boy whose heart burst in the pool...
I know it's iffy, but I think it's a girl, not a nanny - perhaps the girl in the other poem, "Mädchen Tot".
He holds his childhood in his hands (fotos) as he mourns his freedom...
I like to think he prayed to the "moon" (cycle) to hold back his acne (a steroid reaction?) so he could seduce the judge, who being from a western country, would blow the whistle and get them all out of there.
One man who is a brave soul among those kids, had to be made a man because the western doctors couldn't save her womanhood... It's a horror story!
Yes it's left Till a bit unsettled. Go figure...