«Mutter» English Translation
Artist: Rammstein
Album: Mutter
Year: 2001
Requested by: Twitter poll
«Mutter»
[original lyrics]
Die Tränen greiser Kinderschar Ich zieh sie auf ein weißes Haar Werf in die Luft die nasse Kette Und wünsch mir, dass ich eine Mutter hätte Keine Sonne die mir scheint Keine Brust hat Milch geweint In meiner Kehle steckt ein Schlauch Hab keinen Nabel auf dem Bauch
Mutter, Mutter Mutter, Mutter
Ich durfte keine Nippel lecken Und keine Falte zum Verstecken Niemand gab mir einen Namen Gezeugt in Hast und ohne Samen Der Mutter die mich nie geboren Hab ich heute Nacht geschworen Ich werd ihr eine Krankheit schenken Und sie danach im Fluss versenken
Mutter, Mutter Mutter, Mutter Mutter, Mutter Mutter, Mutter
In ihren Lungen wohnt ein Aal Auf meiner Stirn ein Muttermal Entferne es mit Messers Kuss Auch wenn ich daran sterben muss
Mutter, Mutter Mutter, Mutter
In ihren Lungen wohnt ein Aal Auf meiner Stirn ein Muttermal Entferne es mit Messers Kuss Auch wenn ich verbluten muss
Mutter, Mutter Oh gib mir Kraft Mutter, Mutter Oh gib mir Kraft Mutter, Mutter Oh gib mir Kraft Mutter, Mutter Oh gib mir Kraft
«Mother»
[English translation]
The tears of a geriatric group of children I bead them on a white strand of hair1 Throw the wet chain2 into the air And wish I had a mother No sun that shines for me No breast has wept milk There’s a tube inserted in my throat I don’t have a navel on my belly
Mother, mother Mother, mother
I wasn’t allowed3 to lick any nipples There was no wrinkle I could hide in Nobody gave me a name4 Conceived in haste and without sperm To the mother that never gave birth to me I swore tonight I’ll give her a disease And will drown her in the river afterwards
Mother, mother Mother, mother Mother, mother Mother, mother
In her lungs there lives an eel5 On my forehead there’s a birthmark6 Remove it with the kiss of a knife7 Even if I’ll die from it8
Mother, mother Mother, mother
In her lungs there lives an eel On my forehead there’s a birthmark Remove it with the kiss of a knife Even if I’ll bleed out
Mother, mother O give me strength Mother, mother O give me strength Mother, mother O give me strength Mother, mother O give me strength
[Additional Notes]
1 I wasn’t sure whether you usually use the word “hair” in English when you only mean one single piece of hair, so I added the word “strand” to make it more clear that he’s talking about a single strand
2“chain” (Kette) refers to the bead he’s been beading; though “Kette” can mean a variety of things, such as necklace or chain, so I went for chain since “bead chain” is also a thing that exists. It’s technically a necklace he's talking about lol chain just fit the ambiguity of the German word a bit better~
3“Ich durfte [nicht]” can both indicate that you’re not allowed to do something, or not able to do it. I chose the word “allowed” because the lyrics gives off the feeling that the narrator was “prevented” from doing all these things, aka be a normal infant by forces beyond their control.
4 The song can both be an interpretation of the motherless person either being a clone or a reference to Frankenstein’s monster. Especially with the narrative of Frankenstein’s monster this line makes a lot of sense, since the monster doesn’t have a name either. 5 I gotta be honest with you, I have no clue what Till is referring to here. It may be some sort of disease (like the disease the narrator said they’d give the non-existent mother), or the idea that after they’d drowned the mother in the river, an eel would enter her body/corpse. Or maybe it’s a paraphrase for something else entirely, I let you guys decide for yourselves what Till means by that line! 6Just a nice-to-know thing, birthmark/mole in German has different words, one of them being “Muttermal”, which is a compound of “Mutter” (mother), and “Mal” (mark). I thought it’d be fun to mention that Till specificially chose that word for it, since it contains the word “mother” again.
7 Till uses the word “Messer”, which means knife, but I think in English it’d be more natural to use the word blade. But yeah, it’s basically the same idea.
8 This part was kinda tricky for me lol. The idea behind “auch wenn ich sterben muss” is basically “even if I have to die/must die”. So it could be understood as a consequence of the narrator’s previous actions (cutting the mole out), and something that happens because of what they did before. “Müssen” showcasts a sense of urgency and inevitability. Though that same inevitability could very well just be described by a conditional phrase, “If I do x, then y will happen.” I guess you could say that “auch wenn ich sterben muss” in German weighs heavier with the idea of “even if I HAVE TO die” in mind as opposed to “I will die”. That being said, while I didn’t really know which one to pick, and kinda like the urgency with the first possibility a bit more, the second one just sounds a lot more natural in English; hence, why I went with that option.