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| Donauquell dein Aderlass | Donau Spring your bloodletting/bleeding |
| Wo Trost und Leid zerfließen | Where comfort and sorrow dissolve |
| Nichts Gutes liegt verborgen nass | Nothing good lies hidden, wet |
| In deinen feuchten Wiesen | in your damp meadows |
| Keiner weiss was hier geschah | No one knows what happened here |
| Die Fluten rostigrot | The floods (are) rusty red |
| Die Fische waren atemlos | The fishes were breathless |
| Und alle Schwämme tot | And all sponges dead |
| An den Ufern in den Wiesen | At the banks in the meadows |
| Die Tiere wurden krank | The animals became sick |
| Aus den Augen in den Fluss | Out of the eyes into the river |
| Triebabscheulicher Gestank | (the) stench (of) vile urge |
| Wo sind die Kinder | Where are the children? |
| Niemand weisst was hier geschehen | No one knows what happened here |
| Keiner hat etwas gesehen | Nobody saw anything |
| Wo sind die Kinder | Where are the children? |
| Niemand hat etwas gesehen | No one saw anything. |
| Mütter standen bald am Strom | Soon mothers stand at the stream |
| Und weinen eine Flut | And cry a flood |
| Auf die Felder durch die Leiche | On the fields through the dead body |
| Stieg das Leid in alle Teiche | The sorrow climbed into all ponds |
| Schwarze Fahnen auf der Stadt | Black flags on the city |
| Alle Ratten fett und satt | All rats fat and satisfied |
| Die Brummen giftig allerort | The poisonous humming everywhere |
| Und die Menschen soviel fort | And the people so far away |
| Wo sind die Kinder | Where are the children? |
| Niemand weisst was hier geschehen | No one knows what happened here |
| Keiner hat etwas gesehen | Nobody saw anything |
| Wo sind die Kinder | Where are the children? |
| Niemand hat etwas gesehen | No one saw anything. |
| Donauquell dein Aderlass | Donau Spring your bloodletting/bleeding |
| Wo Trost und Leid zerfließen | Where comfort and sorrow dissolve |
| Nichts Gutes liegt verborgen nass | Nothing good lies hidden, wet |
| In deinen feuchten Wiesen | in your damp meadows |
| Wo sind die Kinder | Where are the children? |
| Niemand weisst was hier geschehen | No one knows what happened here |
| Keiner hat etwas gesehen | Nobody saw anything |
| Wo sind die Kinder | Where are the children? |
| Niemand hat etwas gesehen | No one saw anything. |
| Lyric © Rammstein | Translation © Affenknecht.com |
Submitted by Dill
The song deals with an accident near Baia Mare, in Romania, which occurred on 30th Januar 2000.
Extremely heavy rainfall on 30 January caused a dam to breach, causing 100.000 m³ of water to flood a goldmine and carry with it app. 100 ton of heavy metals and sodium cyanide into the nearby river Donau (German name for the Danube). The poison was carried along the river, causing havoc in several countries; drinking water became poisoned, and people fled the rivers’ surroundings to escape the deadly poison, which quickly destroyed all life in and around the river itself.
Lots of children were obviously affected by this disaster, but the name ‘Donaukinder’ (‘Danube Children’) more probably refers metaphorically to the fish in the river, seen as the ‘children’ of the Danube/Donau; the fish obviously suffered most directly the full force of this disaster and the absence of fish in the river is the most obvious consequence of the disaster. Hence, the song rhetorically asks: ‘Wo sind die Kinder?’ (‘Where are the children?’). Furthermore, the German name for Baia Mare, where the breach occured, is ‘Frauenbach’, meaning ‘Woman-River’, which sustains the metaphor of comparing River/Fish to Mother/Children.
it is about the cyanide poisening of the danube river children etc are the fish
http://planetgreen.discovery.com/food-health/green-glossary-baia-mare.html
Thank you for the enlightenment! However, I don’t see the slightest connection between a merely dreadful accident and a Rammstein song. Why would they sing about a classical “shits happen” accident? Perhaps there is no connection, or I really have understanding issues.
That event mentioned in the describing box is exactly what I was talking about before. Baia Mare is not ‘nearby’ the Danube, actually it is pretty far from it. The toxic material was poured into a small river, which later joins river Tisza. The entire wildlife died all along the river, and the cyanide concentration was still very high where it joins the Danube, but as far as I know, the vast part of the destruction was in the Tisza.
Hello!
I am from Romania, and as far as I know Danube has anything to do with Romanian territory anywhere near Baia Mare. This city is in north of Romania, and Danube “enters” in our territory in south east. However, I don’t know if the interpretation of the song is mistaken or just the name of the city.
Anyway, beautiful song!!
In Budapest there was a thing where people would be lined up beside the river to be executed so their bodies would fall into the river. I don’t think this is what inspired the song, the cyanide incident sounds more likely because of the way the river is described in the song. Really until there is an official comment we could keep finding possibilites ad nausium.
or is about an SS ship, as wikipedia refers : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Donau
hei dudes the story i think refers to a concentretion camp named “Donau” where of course, children were kiled with gases and stuf like that. anyway, it was nearby the Danube river, the perfect way to get reed of the bodys. it’s the most plausible explanation. 😀
After a careful listening, I agree with Cthulhu from the second comment above; expect from the correction for “weinen –> weiten”, which does not sound correct and is grammatically wrong.
For the subject of this song, it is a little confusing: it is talking about “Die Fluten rostigrot” which sound like blood, from one hand, but also mention “Die Brunnen giftig” which support the poisoning story. Isn’t there any official comment about this issue?
All I can think of is a cyanide poisoning in another river in Europe, and it is the river Tisza. I know it very well, because I live next it, and I remember… It was really terrible back then… As far as I remember the toxic material came from Romania and was poured into the river just before it reached the Hungarian border. (Tisza later joins the Danube though.)
Maybe the song is linted to this story I found…
DANUBE TRAGEDY
Children Perish in Iron
Gates
BUCHAREST Monday
A motor boat carrying 22 children
aged from seven to nine, on an ex-
cursion accompanied by the head-
master, struck an ice floe in the Iron
Gates where the Danube rages be-
tween towering cliffs.
Desperate fathers and mothers
leapt into the icy water in an attempt to save their children. All theFix this text
parents were picked up by rescue
boats but the, driver of the children’s
boat alone survived. . ,
As far i understood , it’s about the downfall of socialsim in East and Middle Europa.
Does anyone know what the song is about? Sounds to me like some sort of posioning or pollution disater on the Danube (Donau = Danube in German), however I never heard of any serious enviromental disaster on the Danube. Does anyone know what event they are refering to?
Some correction:
line 8: Schwämme/sponges -> Schwäne/swans
line 11: Augen/eyes -> Auen/(flood-)plain
line 12: Triebabscheulicher -> Trieb abscheulicher
-> came a horrible stench
line 18: weinen/cry -> weinten/cried
line 19: Leiche/dead body -> Deiche/levee
line 23: Brummen/humming -> Brunnen/wells
-> the wells were poisened everywhere
line 24: soviel fort/so far away -> ziehen fort/moved away
Does anyone quite understand it and can provide insight?
Thanks.