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down the stairs (speakers of English, come near)

Down the stairs
to understanding
Wir steigen jetzt mal tief hinab
Come near, ich nehm dich bei der Hand
im Niveau, vielleicht kannst du mich dann verstehen.

This world is beautiful indeed
Wir halten's besser so
Wenn Unrecht hier geschieht
Let freedom be defended.

Soll nicht in Brand gesetzt die Welt
We better be prepared
an Unverstand zugrundegehen.
We stand, do what we're told.

An fremde Götter, die es erst
Long live our one and only God
seit fünfzehnhundert Jahren gibt
on which we found our nation, state
sind wir noch lange nicht gewöhnt
Tradition is a table with room for all our friends.

We approach the bottom now. It's getting hard to see.
Wer ist Freund, wer Feind? Ich seh es nicht.
Zu schnell verprellt man sie.
Alas, I fear we have to fight. For victory will bring the light.
The light to happiness, and dark black oil.
Ein nasser Fleck am Boden! Ist dies die Erde, wie sie schreit?
The light is on! Red is the soil!

Author notes

Those who understand the poem already know the content. Loosely inspired by "Amerika" by Konstantin Wecker. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVGHHrVbGXc

    I plan to revise this poem: please leave constructive criticism!
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Comments

  • Angelshadow
    November 17, 2008

    Edit | Reply
    "Tradition is a table with room for all our friends."

    "Who is friend? Who is enemy?"

    Those are some interesting lines, I think the overall flow of this poem is good and its nice to hear some german once in a while


  • Exit-Stage-Right
    October 29, 2008

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    I wish my German was good enough to understand this... I can recognize a dozen plus words... but not really enough to get me to where I can comprehend the thrust of it. Great idea doing a bilingual piece. Sorry!


    • herrlurch
      October 30, 2008
      Edit | Reply

      Well, for the English-speakers

      Well, basically it's sort of split in two - one message in German and another, almost diametrically opposite, very positive message in English. The German part is approx. about a descent into a cellar (or something) and the behaviour towards religion, the English/ American POV is more on a glorious, honourable, aggressive position. In the end, the two voices/ speakers are descended to a point where it is too dark to tell friend from foe and to make the liquid on the earth out as blood or oil. A kind of cynical comment from the "Old Europe"... I will answer your questions more than deliberately. Greets, Götz