Lyrics of Rammstein song “Zeit” and English translation

Whit out God or Eternity it seems pointless, whit out past and future it seem spointless, pointless of suffering, pointless of existing, pointless to born, pointless to carry on. Pointless to bleed, pointless to see, pointless to learn, pointless to hurt, pointless to burn, pointless to eat, if there is no God and creation, what is the point?

In society we are riding the storm figuritively… War, disease, water and food crises, colony colapse, soil depletion, ocean’s over fished, plastic polution, hundreds of dead zones in the oceans… the shit storm is endless it seems following the direction we’ve been rowing… we’re all going to be thrown over board and drown by our own actions, sailing ourselves into oblivion. Dragged to the depths by a rope around our necks that no one puts there, just vicitms of following a doomed course set by our forefathers, elders and ancients… Pointing onwards into destruction, time stares us in the face, while we hold our course.

A course set by War and Dominace, running around the forests of Earth killings each other and destroying ourselves in the processes. Time has to go backwards through the Generations to find the boy before he was turned into a soilder… A few flashes of life times of being a soilder and before that he was a boy playing as a soilder with sticks as guns… Kids raised to be killers… pointing their stick guns at the babies in blankets, the new born innocents… Indications of the youth with stick guns aiming to teach the next generation how to be killers and continue the cycle…

Time has to take the innocent new borns and give them to the blind men(them being band members who bring music to our ears that stimulates us to think and feel), they inturn return the innocence to their mothers womb(Earth) to save the innocence from being corrupted into killing machines of Society that destroy the future and themselves… Inessense saving the spirit and innocence of childhood wonder and joy from the dark future our current time is trying to inflict upon us all. And a double meaning with the blind folded woman and man involving child birth in our time where often the parents birthing a child are blind to the Divinity within the Child and their own lives, often times parents are blind to the Blessing that Life is due to the stresses put on them in our time, in our society everything is weighed and measured for usefullness to the system of control and power. Babies are blindly handed over to the machines of our time and they are shaped into functinal members of society… Career, job, education, tax paying, shopping, voting, all the things that our time dictates are so important and a good judge of a person’s sanity. All things that don’t matter shit in the grand scheme of life on Earth or making it a better existence for ourselves and others… We’re raise to believe that they are to our benefit, all the while being blinded from the truth of our lives… We are slaves waging war with each other, the environment, the animals and most importantly ourselves. We are so destructively painful that many of wish we were not born at all during parts of our lives, it’s often through music and connection to Nature that the inspiration to live is nutured back to health and purpose is found.

The youth tending the field with father and forefather figures is being shown the path of our time, represented by sowing a monocrop like oats or wheat, doing as those who came before did, trying to dominate nature… Plow the field by force, plant only one crop, keep “weeds” out, harvest and repeat till the field is depleted of nutrients and then move on to another field. Structured life dependent on society to function, a monoculture vunerable to disease and parasites… When time stares at this life style, the youth can’t help but question it and step outside of the grasp of their parental figure finding freedom to travel to the very sands of time and move into flow and harmony with it, while the parent finds the child dead and cannot grasp the child has evolved past the lifestyle of slavery the parent has become accustomed to. The parent in all regards sees it as the child having died, but the child is very much alive, more than ever before and having a grand Adventure instead of the pre planned mundane existense. I think it could be hinting towards society’s return to Tribal and Nomadic Spiritual lifestyles for human beings instead of the corporate consumption lifestyle. People being free to flow in the sands of time, dance with the forces of nature instead of being buried by them or society. Release the Free Spirits.

This song is so beautiful they have stayed true though out the years. I’m glad to know and be introduced to a group that produces songs that are seamlessly composed. They are composers. That pushes the boundaries of music even today. Some are shocked but it’s so truth based you can’t look awake or turn it off. Im from the states and I love their music and have the greatest respect for them.

I can’t stop listening to this song, I have bingeing Rammstein since I have found this song last week, I was aware of Rammstein since a very long time but I didn’t give them the attention they deserve, now that Zeit was out I am hooked, I am trying to memorize the lyrics to flex my attempts to learn German:))

Thanks for sharing the lyrics and translating them, love from Jordan, Middle East.

I read the lyrics like it is a worry about growing old and realize all of a sudden your life is running out so you want to stop time but it is of course impossible.
Also that the life is short and you are not prepared it was so fast.

Beautiful, tiimeless and once again, a very deep song.

Til senses the state of his homeland, Europa and the planet as a whole. He was born under a totalitarian oligarchy and understands that there are many changes occurring that wont be for the benefit of humanity. He cannot be too literal, else the German media will jump on him again – but he is sending a message in his music. Not many will hear it but those that do, already understand our predicament.

What is being sung at the very beginning of this song. Curious

I wasn’t a big fan of their 2019 album; a lot of the songs fell flat to me. Maybe I just didn’t get the theme, but the songs felt disconnected, with only a few catchy ones, but only few that will go down in history bar Deutschland, Radio and maybe Ausländer.

This song is something else though, sounds much better and seems to have a point. I hope they do like for Liebe ist für alle da, where there was a very dominant theme throughout the album (Liebe had a very strong connection through different types of love, from romantic, to a hunter’s obsession, to BDSM and the more perturbing ones like Führe Mich). I hope this time they approach death or something like that, with this one being about the inevitability of time. They always have twisted ways of illustrating their points, and I hope they keep doing it.

I also have a few suggestions:

Warmer Körper ist bald kalt
– Warm body soon is cold
Zukunft kann man nicht beschwören
– One can’t summon the future
Duldet keinen Aufenthalt
– It doesn’t condone delay
Erschaffen und sogleich zerstört
– Created and immediately destroyed

*It = the future. The future doesn’t condone delay. It’s created and immediately destroyed, because in a moment the future becomes the past.

Bleib stehen = remain standing/ stay standing/ stand still. I think I would go for:
– Time, please stand still, stand still

Aufhören, wenns am schönsten ist.
– Stop at your peak
(Or stopping at your peak?)

Sidenote: Anyone else very worried about the future of the band here?
“When our time has come, then it’s time to go, stop(ping) at your peak, time stands still”
Noooooo!
Somewhat relieved when he continued with:

Ich bin noch nicht bereit
– I’m not ready yet

Good.
Love them!

All singers sing about when their gone, is that that Rammstein (Till) is ready to go ??? Ready to check out??

Incredible song, thanks for the additional insight.

What a belter!!! So powerful! Such intricately woven lyrics. And that chorus!!

A few of the translations above are a little too rigid. My suggestions are as follows:

Manches sollte, manches nicht
-Some things shall be, some shall not

Sterben lebend in der Tod
-We die alive in death OR (double-meaning)
-We die; alive in death

Gefangen so im Fluss der Zeit
-Trapped in the river of time

Zeit, bitte bleib stehen
-Time, please be still (literally “stay standing”, however “be still” is more fitting)

Das soll immer so weitergehen
-It shall always go on (shall instead of should gives it the sense of inevitability that time stands still for nobody)

Duldet keinen Aufenthalt – A stay is not tolerated

Aufhören wenn’s am schönsten ist –
Finished while at its most beautiful

Die Uhren bleiben stehen-
The clocks stay still

Augenblick, verweile doch
-Wait just one moment (a blink of an eye)

Ich bin noch nicht bereit
– I am not ready yet

What a song. Beautiful just like life is.