A prayer for the soul and the sea.
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.
Prayer
Whoever spits to the south and inspects
Their own saliva like a Kandinsky
Wants then to spit out a sea
Which, unlike mine, is small
Stick the well-behaved tongue into the food
Soft like a wet-nurse's breast
And the moon cries out to be a sickle
The gentle light should be the reaper
When the mist falls - whisper by whisper
The half-star holds his wrath within the little sea
So it becomes hot at night
And smells and forages for bird feed
Notes: Everything is in italics, the third poem to receive this honour after Big in Japan and Immunschwäche Sehr Positiv.
Comment: Every time you see those italics you know it's because it's incomprehensible. Till does mention Kandinsky, the Russian painter (I'm assuming) and the first true painter of Abstract images. And just like Abstract Art, this poem invokes that kind of image.
There are clear images within this poem that I can for the life of me not work out the meaning of. And 'bird feed' was 'Hünerfutter' in the original text, that's all I could get out of it. 'Schwat' was also translated to 'whisper' even though I cannot figure out what the hell that is as a noun; I made use of verbs like 'beschwatzen' (to talk to) to elaborate.
A small note to myself too. 'Gefrass' is a word that comes up often in Till's poems. Often enough that I have struggled to find meanings for it. According to the 1814 Rabenhorst's Dictionary of the German and English Languages, this is a low word/slang for 'food/mouth/eating implements/food related things'. Why Till would use archaic words like this is not something I can question, but it does make translating a nightmare, trawling through the most unlikely places and I'm not always successful.
I try hard with these translations. Too many I see floating around in the internet are incomplete/Google Translated and Till's poems deserve better than that. Not that a German beginner like myself can do much better, but still... I try to have them flow.
This is hard because it's likely allegory. Like the stories in the Bible we still argue about! I see him talking about the custom/superstition of Divination - where one sees patterns in spit like in a crystal. So of course one would want a lot of spit! Beyond that I am quite lost too, but I like being lost there!
ReplyDeleteThat is a very interesting observation that it has a Biblical feel because Schwat can be an alternate spelling for the Hebrew term "Schevat" the fifth month in the Jewish calendar. Interestingly, said to be a time when it rains a lot, which would tie in with the information kipjatilnik provided that it can also mean cloud!
DeleteWhich, unlike mine, is small
ReplyDeleteI'm almost sure, that it is not about the sea, but about the person who spits.. in the meaning that person is much more worth than author..
and about "Schwat", I've found the definition that it can also be the cloud. It makes sense. Probably.
I realise I'm a "few" years late, and don't know if this is at all relevant anymore... But I'm in the middle of translating these poems myself into Danish and have allied myself with a couple of people to help out when I get stuck completely.
ReplyDelete"Schwat um Schwat" was one of those (this is also how I found your rather excellent translations).
One half-german girl I know said it's sort of of slang for "black in black", but that didn't make a lot of sense to me. A German guy at my job came to my rescue finally:
Sometimes when there's heavier fog, you can see movements/waves in it ('cause of air pressure or whatever) - and this phenomenon is apparently also called "nebelschwatten" in German.
For me that makes a LOT more sense with the poem, though I was close to using your "whisper" until I got that explanation