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Old Man
He is waiting for the noon wind
The wave comes and crashes weakly
With a hand fan, every day
The old man smoothes the water
I throw the stone for my fun
The water moves in a circle.
The old man looks at me sadly
And he smoothed it again
In the white sand the old man
Smokes his pipe, shaking.
Only the water and I know
For what he needs this fan
The premonition sleeps like a volcano
I asked him then, hesitatingly,
The head bowed, it seemed he sleeps,
He said before he died
The water shall be your mirror
Only when it is smooth, you will see
How much fairy tale remains for you
And you will beg for redemption
The fan pressed to the body
The hand stiffens in rigor mortis
They had to break his fingers
The fan remained in the sand
I call the old man every day
That he would redeem me here
I remain in the noon wind
And can read in the fan
The water shall be your mirror
Only when it is smooth, you will see
How much fairy tale remains for you
And you will beg for redemption
Guest on 2012-10-06✕
Translations of "Alter Mann"
Comments
Rammstein is cryptic in German as well. I tried to stay as close to the original text as possible.
S1V2 "legt sich matt" is not as strong as "crashes weakly". One could also translate it "lies dimly", although that would not create the picture of a wave in English.
S4V1 "Ahnung" ("premonition") is a pretty common word in German.
S4V4 It is not clear in the text to what "he said before he died" refers.
S5V3 "How much fairy tale" is the literal translation of "wieviel Märchen".
S5V4 "flehen" can also be translated as "plead", but "flehen" is very strong and "plead" may be too weak.
S7V2 "er möchte..." in German sounds like trying to get somebody to do something which he is already supposed to do.