Buy Rammstein song “Donaukinder” on Amazon
| 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.
The grammar here is terrible.
And this is supposed to be the best site for Rammstein lyrics…
If you see any mistakes, please let us know via contact form or directly to comments so that we can fix it. Thanks! And yes, this is still the best site for Rammstein lyric 🙂
see above 🙂
From listening to this I’m pretty sure it’s “Deiche” (dikes) not “Leiche” (dead body) and “Brunnen” (wells) not “Brummen” (humming). The phrases make much more sense in the context of the song with those water related words too. Should be changed to
Auf die Felder durch die *Deiche*/On the fields through the *dikes*
and
Die *Brunnen* giftig allerort/The poisonous *wells* everywhere
Extra song!!!
Just a little extra information: the poisonous solutions was carried directly to river Tisza (Theiß in german), and through that later to Danube (Donau, Duna).
Transylvania is Hungary, not Romania. It does not matter what the treaty of Trianon says, you cannot displace an ethnic population with mere lines on a map.
Yes, you can
really?!
“the total population of Transylvania was 6,789,250 inhabitants and the ethnic groups were: Romanians – 70.62%, Hungarians – 17.92%” (wikipedia)
so please tell me again how is Transylvania not Romania!
Wo sind die Kinder – what a very powerful sentence
I should have learnt years ago not to look up the words to Rammstein songs 🙁
“Schwämme” –> *Schwäne –> Swans
“Aus den Augen” –> *Aus den Auen –> from the wetlands
“Triebabscheulicher Gestank” –> *trieb abscheulicher Gestank” –> flew a putrid smell
“Niemand weisst” –> *Niemand weiss
“durch die Leiche” –> *durch die Deiche –> through the banks
“Die Brummen” –> *Die Brunnen –> the fountains
“Menschen soviel fort” –> *Menschen zogen fort –> People moved away
…und defo “Auf die Felder durch die Deiche” (dykes), not “Auf die Felder durch die Leiche” 🙂
P.S. He’s also singing “Aus den Auen in den Fluss” , not “Aus den Augen in den Fluss” : Auen means floodplains… 🙂
Hi there :o) I’m really grateful for this site and the translations you’ve gone to such trouble to provide here. Thank you! I’m with GenericFan on that 8th line in above: where it reads “Und alle Schwämme tot”, I’m hearing “Und alle Schwäne tot” – all the SWANS, rather than sponges – which makes a lot more sense to me given that Till is referring to a river not the sea…? Cheers! Jay
Pretty sure it should be “Und alle Schwäne tot” and not “Und alle Schwämme tot”. Swans, not sponges.
I just wanted to point out that Europe banned cyanide mining processes on May 2010. Rammstein released this album in 2009.
Leading up to the ban, many environmental groups were battling against companies who kept trying to start up new gold-cyanide mining projects in Romania. Some Romanians wanted them, as they were promised to generate billions of dollars. Some Romanians, and most of the countries around them, were very against this due to the negative environmental impacts.
Rammstein sings about natural elements in a lot of their songs. Them feeling a connection to this river being polluted makes perfect sense.
@TheAustrianDude: Kind of funny how every criticism you threw out has been addressed in the comments already. For example, the Augen/Auen thing, that was in the very first comment. Also, if you had read most of them, you would have seen that the concentration camp/nazi thing was pretty resolutly ended. At least read all of the comments before you decide to be a dick.
and the owner of this “factury” was a Australian/Romanian Companie. not be a kiddy: “wä wö it wasnt a romanian” it was you 🙂