#i wanted to make a reference to rammsteins “deutschland” by saying “deutschland über alles” (germany over all) but it sounds bad

[madame-fear]

Canada

GERMANY IS BETTER 🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪

[redrocx]

«Deutschland» English Translation

Artist: Rammstein

Album: Rammstein

Year: 2019

Requested by: Twitter poll

«Deutschland»

[original lyrics]

Du (Du hast, du hast, du hast, du hast) Hast viel geweint (Geweint, geweint, geweint, geweint) Im Geist getrennt (Getrennt, getrennt, getrennt, getrennt) Im Herz vereint (Vereint, vereint, vereint, vereint) Wir (Wir sind, wir sind, wir sind, wir sind) Sind schon sehr lang zusammen (Ihr seid, ihr seid, ihr seid, ihr seid) Dein Atem kalt (So kalt, so kalt, so kalt, so kalt) Das Herz in Flammen (So heiß, so heiß, so heiß, so heiß) Du (Du kannst, du kannst, du kannst, du kannst) Ich (Ich weiß, ich weiß, ich weiß, ich weiß) Wir (Wir sind, wir sind, wir sind, wir sind) Ihr (Ihr bleibt, ihr bleibt, ihr bleibt, ihr bleibt) (Deutschland) Mein Herz in Flammen Will dich lieben und verdammen (Deutschland) Dein Atem kalt So jung und doch so alt (Deutschland) Ich (Du hast, du hast, du hast, du hast) Ich will dich nie verlassen (Du weinst, du weinst, du weinst, du weinst) Man kann dich lieben (Du liebst, du liebst, du liebst, du liebst) Und will dich hassen (Du hasst, du hasst, du hasst, du hasst) Überheblich, überlegen Übernehmen, übergeben Überraschen, überfallen Deutschland, Deutschland über allen (Deutschland) Mein Herz in Flammen Will dich lieben und verdammen (Deutschland) Dein Atem kalt So jung und doch so alt (Deutschland) Deine Liebe Ist Fluch und Segen (Deutschland) Meine Liebe kann ich dir nicht geben (Deutschland) (Du) (Ich) (Wir) (Ihr) (Du) Übermächtig, überflüssig (Ich) Übermenschen, überdrüssig (Wir) Wer hoch steigt, der wird tief fallen (Ihr) Deutschland, Deutschland über allen (Deutschland) Dein Herz in Flammen Will dich lieben und verdammen (Deutschland) Mein Atem kalt So jung und doch so alt (Deutschland) Deine Liebe Ist Fluch und Segen (Deutschland) Meine Liebe kann ich dir nicht geben (Deutschland)

«Germany» [English translation]

You (You have, you have, you have, you have) Have cried a lot (Cried, cried, cried, cried) Separated in spirit (Separated, separated, separated, separated) United hearts1 (United, united, united, united) We (We are, we are, we are, we are) Have been together for very long2 (You are, you are, you are, you are) Your breath cold (So cold, so cold, so cold, so cold) The heart on fire (So  hot, so hot, so hot, so hot) You (You can, you can, you can, you can) I (I know, I know, I know, I know) We (We are, we are, we are, we are) You3 (You remain, you remain, you remain, you remain)4 (Germany) My heart on fire I want to love you and condemn you (Germany) Your breath cold So young and yet so old5 (Germany) I (You have, you have, you have, you have) I never want to leave you (You cry, you cry, you cry, you cry) One can love you (You love, you love, you love, you love) And one wants to hate you (You hate, you hate, you hate, you hate)6 Haughty, superior To take over, to hand over7 To surprise, to raid, Germany, Germany, above all else8 (Germany) My heart on fire I want to love you and condemn you (Germany) Your breath cold So young and yet so old (Germany) Your love Is a curse and a blessing (Germany) My love I can’t give to you (Germany) (You) (I) (We) (You) (You) Overpowering, unnecessary (I) Übermenschen9, weary (We) The higher you climb, the farther you fall10 (You) Germany, Germany, above all else (Germany) Your heart on fire I want to love you and condemn you (Germany) My breath cold So young and yet so old (Germany) Your love Is a curse and a blessing (Germany) My love I can’t give to you (Germany)

[Additional Notes]

1 The idea is that Germany united people in hearts, but the "people" part is ommited, which is why it sounds a bit weird in English (but I wanted to keep the original phrasing). 2 In German, the "we are" and "we have been together" parts are both formed by using the word "sind", which is an inflection of the verb "to be". In English, we have to use a different auxiliary verb, which is sadly why the connection is lost in the translation. (Since the chants in brackets are always picked up on the next line.) 3 this time, "you" is used in second person plural in German, same as 4 4 "bleiben" can mean different things, depending on the context. Since there's not a clear context given here, I decided to go with the English equivalent which sorta entails both meanings. "bleiben" can either be translated as "to stay" or to "remain", but "stay" suggests a more physical form of "bleiben", whereas "remain" can be more ambiugous, which I thought worked better here given the unclear context. 5 No translation note, it mostly concerns the meaning & understanding of the line. He says Germany is both old and young, which is referring to post World War 2 Germany. Obviously, Germany as a country has been around for centuries ("yet so old"), but Germany as we know it nowadays has only been established around 1990 with the German Reunification. That's why Till calls it "young" (aka present Germany is still young), when in fact, it's old already. 6 This is a pun in German pronunciation. "Du hast" (you have/you have got) and "du hasst" (you hate) are both pronounced the same way. Before, Till used the verb "have", but now he shifted to the word "hate", which creates kinda a pun in the German language. 7 Fun fact: "übergeben" can mean both "to hand over" or "to throw up". I don't think Till intended to create a pun, (however, it's possible), and "to hand over" makes more sense given the first part of the line. I just thought it was funny to mention it. 8 This part is a bit... tricky. In German, Till not only uses alliterations in this paragraph (these words all start with the prefix "über"), but he also makes the last two lines rhyme. Obviously, I couldn't keep the rhyme while translating, which is a shame, tbh. In the German lyrics, there's also no need to specify the word class of these words, but I felt for the third line in particular it was better to showcase that these words are both infinite verbs by adding the "to" accordingly to avoid confusion. 9 I decided to not translate "Übermenschen" for several reasons. First, it's also a widely known leanword in the English language. Second, and more importantly, by not translating the word, I felt that the context in which this word is used, is more clear. "Übermensch" is a philosophical concept that has been used and abused especially during the time of German National Socialism (or as people like to call it, Nazi Germany), and in context of the whole song, this is exactly what Till was aiming for when he chose that word. For those of you who have not come across this term, it means “superior human beings”. (Again, the alliterations in the paragraph are lost in the English translation.) 10 This line is an idiom both in the German and the English language, so I didn't really have to pick it apart too much. Though the English idiom/translation once again doesn't 100% communicate the meaning of this line. Translated more freely, Till says that whoever climbs high WILL (inevitably) fall hard. This again is a reference to the time of German NS. At last, I do want to put down a few general remarks, since especially when the song and music video first came out I saw a lot of controversy about it happening. Well, not controversy but misconception, so I thought to make a statement here. Neither the song nor the video glorify Nazis, National Socialism, the Holocaust or whatever other claims have been made. You'd assume that it's pretty damn obvious both in the lyrics and the video (they actually shoot Nazis in the head in the video -- it doesn't get clearer than that, imo), but apparently it still needs to be said. It's not even a song to celebrate Germany and to sing about how awesome it is. On multiple occassions, it refers to the very darkest parts of German history, and it even states "I can't give my love to you"; this song is about how difficult it is to actually love Germany for all the bad things in its (our) history. I'm not sure how much of a common knowledge this is, but Germans aren't really prone to celebrating or even showcasting their pride for their country, mostly in shame of what happened in the past, so no one would actually sing a song of praise about it -- except Nazis. But as I said, none of this pertains to Rammstein or this song. It is not a song of praise, it's a song of "I don't know whether to punch or kiss you", a song about an inner conflict, while the music video imo is even clearer about how much it is NOT a song of praise. Rammstein are not Nazis, they're probably the furthest thing from Nazis, they don't glorify or celebrate this country in any way with this song and video. I do hope the English translation will clarify as much, or if nothing else, this annotation will.