Till Lindemann's 'Messer' - 'Messer'

About time I paid attention to the titular poem.

Disclaimer: Poem copyrighted to Till Lindemann. This post does not include photos/illustrations of said poem from 'Messer'. The original German text is also not included. This is only a interpretive translation and accuracy is not guaranteed.





Knife

The dead sea within my flesh
Gave birth to a harbour
Every day, at the same time
It lays down my punishment
With a dying galley
The lark with a white bonnet
I would kill for her company
But she has a beak like a griffin's
And a grip as sharp as that of scissors

She raises anchor and will sing
And with a fine blade she will cut
My little boat of paper in two
Screaming towards colder waters;
It sinks, and no one sings with me
And thus I have a fear of knives.

The little boat bleeds out from the mast
Into the breast of Grandmother
And when the sun shines in her night
Someone is there to weep with her.
We drift coldly across the showers of the eye
Full of hunger within heavy casks;
She cuts deep into me to devour me
And thus I have a fear of knives.

And when the sun shines in my night -
- there is no one there
to weep with me.

Notes: Italics are lines that I'm less sure of than the rest.

Comments: 'Messer' is a beautifully pure distillation of the themes that are to be expected within this collection of poems. See how many recurring themes from other poems are present?

* The sun shining.
* Ships and the sea.
* Bleeding/death
* Drifting in some form or another.

I'm going to translate 'Grossmutter' next. Perhaps that will also bring forth some more themes.