this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2025
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[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I do listen to Rammstein despite being mostly only English speaking. I'm picking up more and more of the the lyrics in the songs and what they mean.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

They also play with words a lot, which is lost in translation. For example, in Du Hast, he begins saying:

Du hast (you have)

Du hast mich (you have [..] me)

Which, to a native speaker, hearing it for the first time, may very well be interpreted as:

Du hasst (you hate)

Du hasst mich (you hate me)

But then he continues:

Du hast mich gefragt (you have asked me)

So when the verb "gefragt" arrives, the interpretation suddenly changes from "you hate me" to "you have asked me". Which is cool.

This is just one tiny example - Rammstein lyrics are full of wordplay that only works in German. It would take forever to explain it all.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Yeah and my German is nowhere near good enough to pick up that kind of wordplay. I knew about that one, but only from reading about it.

It is interesting that I'll be listening to a song I've heard many times before, and suddenly be like, oh I suddenly understand that lyric!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The song came out in '97. Either that is a really deep song, or you may need some help with your German...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

I'm not listening to just Du Hast. Do you see where I said "songs" as in plural?