2010-04-10

LILT: Donaukinder 3.0

I'm not sure if I'm being horribly arrogant, or if I really have nailed this song down so quickly, but I'm happy with it, even the verse I switched Till's rhyming formula around on:
Danube bleeds from headwaters
Where peace and suffering thaw
No good can now be supported
There in her marshy sward

No one knows what's happened here
The floods are rusty red
The fishes could not draw a breath
And all the swans are dead

In the river's former verdure
The animals fell ill
To the stream from the pasture
Was drifting an awful smell

Where are the children?
None knew what was happening
No one has seen anything
Where are the children?
No one has seen anything

Mothers stood there by the stream
And they wept forth a flood
In the fields and through the wiers
Grew their sorrow all through the mud

Black flags hanging through the town
Rats grew fatter by the day
The wells were poisoned all around
And the people moved away

Where are the children?
None knew what was happening
No one has seen anything
Where are the children?
No one has seen anything

Danube bleeds from headwaters
Where peace and suffering thaw
No good can now be supported
There in her marshy sward

Where are the children?
None knew what was happening
No one has seen anything
Where are the children?
No one has seen anything

[original lyrics & translation]

3 comments:

  1. WOW this is unlike the stupid translation i read today which didn't make sense.. this is great. i don't know german and it really means a lot to me to understand the lyrics properly.. THANKS :))

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  2. Your version really keeps the original's darkness, beauty and sadness...
    ¡Very well done!

    I wish I could Lilt in spanish XD

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  3. Ah, thanks guys. That means a lot to me.

    Erikire: Have you tried? :)

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