What are the lyrics of “Du Hast” by the German Artist Ramstein, when they are translated into English?
Thank You
I like big butts and I cannot lie
You other brothas can’t deny …
The English Version - not an entirely accurate translation of the German, but it ought to give an idea.
First, I think it’s Rammstein and not Ramstein. Ramstein is the location of the AFB where a jet crashed into the crowd during an air show, killing a large number of onlookers. The band used the name but added a second ‘r’ to differentiate the two.
Second, we’re not allowed to quote lyrics in their entirety. There are sites that translate the lyrics (hint: Google on Rammstein lyrics Du Hast Mich)
Third, the song is a bit of a play on words. Du hast mich translates to “you have me”. But the phrase “you hate me” would be Du hasst mich and sound pretty much exactly the same. So the lyrics start out with:
*Du
Du hast
Du hast mich
*
then this is repeated, before adding:
Du hast mich gefragt.
Which means “You have asked me.”
Du hasst mich gefragt would be, AFAIK, a meaningless phrase. It goes on to say “You’ve asked me, and I’ve said nothing”.
Is this close to what you’re looking for?
What about posting links to the lyrics?
http://herzeleid.com/en/lyrics/sehnsucht#du_hast
It explains all the double-meanings quite nicely.
The first time I bought Sehnsucht; it had English versions of Engel and Du Hast as secret tracks. Engel came out OK in English, but Du Hast sounded like ass.
I lost that copy and bought another one recently. That copy had a different song in English as a secret track. No Du Hast there.
That’s a nice link, ForumBot. There are about a zillion iffy links to lyrics on that song, which is why I didn’t post a link. I especially liked the explanation on the German wedding vows, of which I am blissfully unaware.
There is no double meaning. The guy is clearly saying: Du hast mich. As in “You have”.
He’s saying: “You have asked me, you have asked me, and I said nothing”.
Note the other lines are part of marriage vows “Will you be faithful to her until death separates you?”.
It’s a wedding, basically, and he’s singing about saying no. Hate would be hasst. I have never heard the guy make any comments about a double meaning.
Oh, and the vagina thing makes absolutely no sense.
As soon as the sentence is completed ther is no doubt about its meaning:
You have asked me, and I didn’t said anything.
However the double meaning is too obvious to be a coincidence. Psycho-linguists call this a “garden path sentence”. To a certain degree it also works if you hear the whole sentence at once. The first two versions are technically ambiguous. Phonetically there is no difference between hast and hasst.
Du has(s)t - realtively uncertain, but so far “You have” is more likely.
Du has(s)t mich - “You hate me” is probably more intuitive than “You have me”, both are possible.
Du hast mich gefragt - Now it is decided.
There is a classic example for an English garden path sentence. Although it doesn’t make good lyrics, consider this example:
The horse raced.
The horse raced past the barn.
The horse raced past the barn fell.
Yes, but when he says “Du hast. Du hast mich”, he really drags out the s, meaning it could be a stylistic deliverance of “du hast” or he’s actually saying “du hasst”.
About the wedding vows and the vagina: He’s making a little joke here. Will you be faithful until death? Or, alternately, will you be faithful until the vagina goes kaput?
Yes, but when he says “Du hast. Du hast mich”, he really drags out the s, meaning it could be a stylistic deliverance of “du hast” or he’s actually saying “du hasst”. You hate me, yet you’ve asked me to marry you.
About the wedding vows and the vagina: He’s making a little joke here. Will you be faithful until death? Or, alternately, will you be faithful until the vagina goes kaput?
If you take into account what the song actually sounds like it’s pretty clear that they intend to mislead. And now that I know what the word is for vagina in German I’ll never look at actor Roy Scheider the same.
The name’s actually Rob Schneider. 
No, Roy Scheider, although scheiden means separate, divide, decompose, dissolve, or divorce, and “scheider” would be one who does one the above. If you can’t figure out how die Scheide meaning “vagina” comes out of this definition, I can’t help you. Didn’t we just have a thread on the bluntness of German?
Rob Schneider would be one who cuts, prunes, or trims, BTW.
For the record, the English version on the first Sehnsucht went like so:
You
You hate
You hate me
(repeat)
You hate me to say
You hate me to say
You hate me to say
And I do not obey
(can’t remember the rest, and it’s against CS policy to give full lyrics anyway)
I do like the German wedding vows explanation better. And I’m not ashamed to admit to liking Rob Schneider’s movies, so I’m glad he’s not a gardener. Same goes for Dee Schneider.
Though I can’t find them anymore on Rammstein.com, the band has released at least three different translations of “Du Hast.” The one Tentacle Monster quotes from is by far my least favorite of the three. For that matter, I don’t really like any of that particular translator’s work; I believe he’s the same one that managed to get “Goddamn, not an angel when I die” from “Gott weiß ich will kein Engel sein” (“God knows I don’t want to be an angel”) for the English version of Engel. Personally, I don’t think it’s a translator’s place to take artistic license.
FTR, I already knew (most) of the other meanings (for scheiden, not die Scheide – thank Gott it’s feminine, in German you never know!) Just not that one. Can’t imagine how that meaning of the word never came up at work.
Does anyone else find the idea of Mexican strippers dancing to this song both funny and surreal?
Because I did. As did everyone else in the group.
And this was in “real” Mexico, not resort Mexico.
Du Hast IS intended to have a double meaning, just like their name is intended to have double meaning (Ramstein the city and Rammstein meaning battering ram), and similarly, the facist sounding Links2,3,4, sounding very military in nature, actually has lyrics referring to being, for lack ofa better term, liberal in a conservative society.
Till says their intention in writing Du Hast was as a warning to women that men will never be faithful, their hearts will always be broken and that a man will hide his feelings and desires. (Hence the “you ask me and I say nothing”). It’s obvious in their live concerts that they play off the “Du HASST mich” translation, as Till very often fake cries after declaring that the crowd “hates him” or he’ll say “so what?” or “fuck you”, indicating he doesn’t care if you hate him or not.
In a behind the scenes interview with Paul Landers of Rammstein on Lichtspielhaus (their DVD Video colelction) said the great thing about Rammstein is that every time they’re being serious, people assume they’re probably making a joke, and everytime they’re genuinely making a joke, people mistake them for being serious.
A better site for rammstein information is herzeleid as, rammstein.com and rammstein.net are mostly just used as marketing by their label.