Ramstein's "Du Hast"

[Kamino_Neko]

@Tentacle Monster

For the record, the English version on the first Sehnsucht went like so:

Psst. I posted a link to the lyrics of the English version earlier. (BTW, the English versions of both Du Hast and Engel are pretty bad.)

[Dragonblink]

@kellner

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.

The thing is, the completion of that sentence doesn’t change the meaning of the ‘incomplete’ versions. The last sentence does not make the one before it into a noun phrase instead of a sentence. In fact, if you consider the first and second sentences as sentences rather than fragments, then ‘raced’ must be the main verb of the sentence. Only in the third sentence does “raced past the barn” become an adjective-type thing that modifies ‘horse’.

An example I heard in a song (my memory may not be exact):

You make me
You make me complete
You make me completely miserable

The negative completion of the third sentence doesn’t change the positive interpretation of the second. Completing the sentence “Du hast mich gefragt” does not prove that “Du hast/Du hast mich” cannot be interpreted as “Du hasst/Du hasst mich”.

[kellner]

@Dragonblink

The negative completion of the third sentence doesn’t change the positive interpretation of the second. Completing the sentence “Du hast mich gefragt” does not prove that “Du hast/Du hast mich” cannot be interpreted as “Du hasst/Du hasst mich”.

Oh, I must have been very unclear. I was arguing for the double meaning and different interpretations. Although it is technically ambiguous I had no doubt that the secand version should be understood as “Du hasst mich.” - “You hate me.”

[smiling_bandit]

actually has lyrics referring to being, for lack ofa better term, liberal in a conservative society.

Which, I admit, makes me wonder, since Germany is about as liberal as it gets in this world. Of course, even Germans have their leftists, who seem to merge with anarchists at the far end.

[tiny_ham]

@smiling bandit

Which, I admit, makes me wonder, since Germany is about as liberal as it gets in this world. Of course, even Germans have their leftists, who seem to merge with anarchists at the far end.

Well, the reason for a song like Links 2,3,4 is because Rammstein have been unfairly pegged as ‘neo-NAZI’ or “fascist” right from the beginning, which is absolutely preposterous. Links was the first song of theirs to have an even SLIGHTLY political bent, but because they refuse to sing in English, U.S. disc jockeys and record labels and MTV in particular went bonkers, accusing them of being NAZI. :rolleyes:

[Knowed_Out]

@Snooooopy

I like big butts and I cannot lie
You other brothas can’t deny …

That post made me the office gutbuster of the day.

[dook]

@ShibbOleth

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?

Ok I’m actually listening to the english version by rammstein right now…
And he is definately saying

You
You hate
You hate me
You hate me to say
You hate me to say
You hate me to say
And I did not obey.

And of course there is more, but it is my understanding that I will be drawn and quartered by SDMB staff and the RIAA if I post the lyrics in their entirety.

[tiny_ham]

@Alcatraz

Ok I’m actually listening to the english version by rammstein right now…
And he is definately saying

You
You hate…

The band clearly states that the english versions of Du Hast and Engel are not literal translations of their lyrics, but altered in order for them to rhyme and to be appropriate for public airwaves.