Till Lindemann's 'Messer' - 'Nebel'

If you expect this to be anything like the Rammstein song 'Nebel', hoo boy are you wrong.

Due to graphic descriptions I will label this as 'grimdark'.

(Poem no. 09 out of 54, located pg. 30 of ‘Messer’, 2010 print.)

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.



Mist

When the mist rises from the meadows
I will cut open my own skin
Two fathoms beneath the collarbone
I let out into the white sea

I gouge out my own eyes
The house is without windows
Heavily beat in my own skull
Then it snows and my brain freezes

I hack at my breast for fun
It rains and my heart becomes wet
Open up my thick veins
And gift you bouquets of red tears

Every day, like a piece of paper
I cut away pieces of myself
And you put those parts on your forehead
Immerse them within your brain
Until I'm tiny and very small
And then pulled within your body

I will get to your breasts
And show myself all its prospects
Through your lips I must crawl
So that I can kiss your tongue

The mole upon your leg
Is meant to be my little island
That small scar is my nest
I hold tightly onto that little hair
When you put on your pale dress
And weep when you read fairy tales


Original Meter: Alternating iambic and trochaic, mostly tetrameters. The trochaic tetrameters are mostly truncated as well. The first line in an exception; depending on how you read it, it is a trochaic pentameter ('Wenn die Nebel aus den...') or it is iambic tetrameter and there is a pyrrhic addition in the first and last syllable ('Wenn die Nebel aus den...', accent on bold).

Original Rhyme Scheme: AABB etc, continuous.

Comments: Mostly unchanged from the first translation, admittedly; switched the word order around in two lines and fixed 'hairs' into 'little hair' ('härchen'). Otherwise? Just as grimdark as it was when I first tried it. Possibly a tale of masochistic possession thrust upon another.

Couldn't be further away from the song...