Buy Rammstein song “Mutter” on Amazon
| Die Tränen greiser kinderschaar | The tears of senile childs |
| ich zieh sie auf ein weisses Haar | i put them on a white hair |
| werf in die Luft die nasse Kette | throw it in the air, the wet chain |
| und wünsch mir das ich eine Mutter hätte | and wish i had a mother |
| keine Sonne die mir scheint | no sun that shines to me |
| keine Brust hat Milch geweint | no breast cries milk to me |
| in meiner Kehle steckt ein Schlauch | in my throat there is a tube |
| hab keinen Nabel auf dem Bauch | have no navel on my belly |
| Mutter … Mutter | Mother … Mother |
| Mutter … Mutter | Mother … Mother |
| Ich durfte keine Nippel lecken | i could not lick the nipples |
| und keine falte zum verstecken | and no fold to hide inside |
| niemand gab mir einen Namen | no one gives me a name |
| gezeugt in Hass und ohne Samen | made in hate and without sperm |
| der Mutter die mich nie geboren | to the mother that never born me |
| hab ich heute Nacht geschworen | i swear this night |
| ich werd dir eine Krankheit schenken | i will give you a disease |
| und sie danach im Fluß versenken | and after that i will sink it in the river |
| Mutter .. Mutter | Mother … Mother |
| Mutter .. Mutter | Mother … Mother |
| Mutter .. Mutter | Mother … Mother |
| Mutter .. Mutter | Mother … Mother |
| In ihren Lungen wohnt ein Aal | in her lungs there lives an eel |
| auf meiner Stirn ein Muttermahl | on my face there is a birthmark |
| entferne es mit Messers Kuß | remove it with the kiss of the knife |
| auch wenn ich daran sterben muß | also if i die of it |
| Mutter … Mutter … Mutter … Mutter !! | Mother … Mother … Mother .. Mother !! |
| In ihren Lungen wohnt ein Aal | in her lungs there lives an eel |
| auf meiner Stirn ein Muttermahl | on my face there is a birthmark |
| entferne es mit Messers Kuß | remove it with the kiss of the knife |
| auch wenn ich verbluten muß | also if i bleed out |
| Mutter | Mother |
| Ohh … gib mir Kraft | Ohh … give me strength |
| Mutter | Mother |
| Ohh … gib mir Kraft | Ohh … give me strength |
| Mutter … Mutter | Mother … Mother |
| Ohh … gib mir Kraft | Ohh … give me strength |
| Mutter … Mutter | Mother … Mother |
This song is about a man who never had a mother because he was born from an experiment. The man in the song seeks revenge against the mother that never gave birth to him, while at the same time expressing love for the same mother, exposing the duality in some mother-son relationships in which hate and love exist in parallel to each other.
@Whitejax
Sorry for the VERY late reply !
Kinderschaar.
Schar (Femi. die S.) is a crowd or flock, throng or…
Hey, also “Host”, as in Wordswoth’s beautiful Poem “I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud”: “… A host, of golden daffodils…”
Schaar is Plural (if I remember correctly).
So it is close to “Host(s)/Crowd(s)/Flock(s) of Children”
But I guess you could use Singular here.
Greis (Mask. der):[A poetic way of saying “A Very Old Man”, yet not entirely the same. I believe it exists in the English Vocabulary, so I just send a message to my Friend, who just took a MSc In Language degree. If he knows the word, I’ll let you know]
Greisin (die): Female of above.
Senil (adjec.): senile
Senilität (noun): senility
As for Kinder… I believe you know enough ;)…
Sometimes words can be ambiguous: Greiser COULD be senile, though my Dad’s older version of their largest dictionary “Der Großer Duden” has no such entry.
My newer both-way German Dictionary that supported me is limited and it’s been over 12 years ago since I used my German :).
As for my English transritalion my 10 year old Oxford I forgot in my Farther’s basement :D.
Ain’t that a bitch !
Hope I could be of any help, without denigrating your intellect.
@Frank
You are absolutely right. It IS a Birthmark. It’s just a “Tyop”. Direct translation.
He could’ve translated himself or have had e.g. Google Translate (translate.google.com) to do it for him and fixed some terms and words and missed this one. When doing larger texts GT sometimes still chokes on some words (as you might have discovered).
Sometimes when I translate myself, I make the same mistake: A word or sentence can be directly translated :D. For me it happens, when I’ve translated for a long time. I don’t realize the mistake, until much later, – or somebody tells me :).
What does Mothersigne mean? is it the same as Birthmark? Coz Muttermal means birthmark.
Yep, lieber Erik, I saw the quotation marks, but the bit that I didn’t know was the Frankenstein connection, and being sewn together as a makeshift human being, without ever feeling like one… The translations I’d done of tubes down throats & birthmarks on the forehead suddenly made a lot more sense! The hardest thing about translation is keeping true to the original but making it make sense in the other language: add to that making the whole thing rhyme, and this song caused more grief than any other I’d done (what on earth is ‘greiser kinderschaar’?) Still, great challenge!
Thank you for you support, Whitejax :).
I actually just cited it from Wiki (didn’t anyone of you see the quotation marks?), so what points are you referring to, that I raised?
About “Die Erklärung” of Till’s Mother, I only got two hits: One was this and the other was another Rammstein Fan Forum.
But on the other hand, I weren’t THAT thorough.
About their unhappy Childhood… Well… could also be a “Truth with modifications”. That “they weren’t THAT happy as children (they might’ve been brought up pretty strict), but it was OK” and when they got older they figured it out. They got a great relationship with their parents.
Could be :).
And about your interpretation of the song, I share it: It’s about the Mother, not THE Mother!
(if I had a problem with my parents, I would still be able to make a song about being a parent or adulthood and not only about my old folks).
Whoah, Floriella, easy tiger! I think Eric raised some good points in his post, even if we then reflected on the quote attributed to Lindemann & Kruspe and concluded that it may not have been completely accurate: I would question any source that isn’t direct from the named individual, but the goz helps us to debate what we think is fact vs fallacy. Your post was also very revealing about Till’s mum, so moved my understanding on of that, too. I think Till’s challenging the concept of motherhood rather than the mother figure in this song, and the negative consequences of a lack of a maternal bond early in life can cause problems well into adulthood.
Hey Floriella,
I wrote the source of the “Gossip” on top!
“Quick search! Got something for ya!
Found it somewhere aswell, but can’t remember:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutter_(song)”
(Meant to say “somewhere ELSE”)
Personally I give the entire Wikipedia database… (80%~)93%-100% in trustworthy, so I don’t know where this bullshit lies.
(It IS GPL/GNU and before they realized it, there where already a whole lot of incorrect articles. All of them aren’t fixed but they’re pretty damn close, as far as I’m told :).
This Article about “Mutter” was last edited December 9th 2011.
Since you know something more than what it says on wiki (and you do, because I just found and read “Mein Sonn…”), I think you should edit that article. Please find more references.
I always found this article 94% Trustworthy, though there where no references. Normally I’m pretty critical and disbelieving about no referrences, but I guess I got gullible.
But Floriella :). Really think you should edit that.
“The song was confirmed by Till Lindemann and Richard Kruspe to be a reference to their unhappy childhood relationships with their own mothers.”
I’m sorry but where did you get THAT information from? It’s totally untrue. Not sure about Richard, but Till has said it many times, that he had a very good relationship with his Mother and she’s even written a sweet article about her son “Mein Sohn, der Frontmann von Rammstein – eine Liebeserklaerung”. Till also said that he’d presented the MUTTER lyrics to his Mom, to avoid missunderstandings. And she really enjoyed the text. It’s NOT about her. It has got NOTHING to do with their relationship in real life. She herself has explained it away. “Der Text hat ja nichts mit mir zu tun – obwohl wenn es mein Sohn singt” – The text has got nothing to do with me – even if it’s my own Sohn singing”.
I don’t know the source of the gossip but either way it’s just some plain Bull***it. The same thing goes for his Father’s death cause.
I really wish people would stop spreading such false rubbish about the band, without referring to reliable sources.
Hey, Eric – thanks for the vote of confidence! And the additional information: it wasn’t an easy song to translate. Your explanation above answers a lot of questions I had about background.
I explore all things chillingly maternal in my RammTalk 6 Mothers On The Brink blog on my new website – feel free to contribute your ideas, as you’ve got some great input!
Damn, Norman, where the H*ll did you get that idea? Till’s father? 🙂
Quick search! Got something for ya!
Found it somewhere aswell, but can’t remember:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutter_(song)
“…
The song was confirmed by Till Lindemann and Richard Kruspe to be a reference to their unhappy childhood relationships with their own mothers. The lyrics tell the story of a child not born from a womb but in an experiment, thus having no true father or mother. The lyrics describe his plan to kill both the mother “who never gave birth to him” and himself, a plan which he proceeds to carry out. However, he still fails to kill himself, instead ending up mutilated and no better off than before. The child begs, possibly prays, for strength, but his dead mother does not answer. The narrative of the song is similar to Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, in that the character takes revenge for his misfortunes on his ‘parent’, and then ends up no different than he was before the ‘parent’ died.
…”
WhiteJax, free translation, close to the original and you make it rhyme.
Nice work :). I actually performed ‘Mutter’ once with a band, so suddenly I was glad I paid just a little attention in 6th Grade in German lessons :D.
It really pleases me, when a job is done well, – especially when it concerns one of my favorite songs…
to the mother that never born me
i swear this night
i will give you a disease
and after that i will sink it in the river
the meaning of this part is till’s father
This song is about abortion.
no..no..im not sure about that..the child was born after all…talks about aborting itself via knife..but thats the only allusion
In the Little Black Rammbook, available on Amazon, I translate the lyrics of Mutter like this:
I see the tears of ancient children
In greying hair they remain well hidden
Throw in the air this dampen skein
And I long to have a mother again
No real daylight there for me
No mother’s breast, milk running free
And down my throat a tube with label
No belly button on my navel
Mother….
No nipple there for me to suckle
No folds of skin to hide and chuckle
No-one gave me any name
Spermless, made with hate and shame
To the mother of my non-birth
I swore this night, and on this earth
I would curse her with a vile disease
And drown them in the river with ease
Venom pukes from her every breath
A birthmark stamped on my forehead
Kiss the blade, cut it away
Should I not live another day
Mother….. Oh mother, give me life
that sounds good too
Also, “Muttermahl” is spelled “Muttermal” with no H, and it more accurately means a birth mark.
Like others have said, “auch” in this case word more aptly translate as “even,” as in “even if I must bleed to death.”