Bald ist es Nacht, wir sind allein, du musst nicht, musst nicht traurig sein. Stimmen flüstern hinter dem Gesicht, die da sagen, die da sagen: Tu' das nicht! Lass das sein! Fass' das nicht an! Sag' einfach nein! Bückstabü*** hol' ich mir. Bückstabü hol' ich mir. Hab' keine Angst, ich bin doch hier, Ich bin ja, bin ganz nah bei dir. Stimmen flüstern hinter dem Gesicht, die da sagen: Tu' das nicht! Lass das sein! Fass' das nicht an! Sag' einfach nein! Bückstabü hol' ich mir. Bückstabü hol' ich mir. Zwei Seelen 'ach in meinem Schoß, es kann nur eine überleben! Beim ersten Mal tut es nicht weh, ein zweites Mal wird es nicht geben! Bückstabü, tu' das nicht! Bückstabü, lass das sein! Bückstabü, fass' das nicht an! Bückstabü, sag' einfach! Bückstabü hol' ich mir. Bückstabü hol' ich mir. Lyric © Rammstein |
Soon it is night* We are alone You must not, must not be sad Voices whisper behind the face They say They say: Don't do that Let it be Don't grasp onto it Simply say no! B******** I call myself B******** I call myself Have no fear I am not yet here I am yeah, am nearly entirely with you Voices whisper behind the face They say: Don't do that Let it be Don't grasp onto it Simply say no! B******** I call myself B******** I call myself Two souls alas in my lap** There can only be one survivor It doesn't hurt the first time There will not be a second time B******** Don't do that B******** Let it be B******** Don't grasp it B******** Simply say no B******** I call myself B******** I call myself Translation © Affenknecht.com |
Translation Notes:
* – This could also mean “Soon it will be night” but this is correct
** – Schoss can mean lap or womb
*** – According to Richard Z. Kruspe, “B********” does not stand for “Bastard”, but for “Bückstabü”, a word made up by the band to mean “whatever you want”
In my opinion, this song is somehow… different. I’m not saying it’s not good, but it’s more like the odd one out. It can easily keep someone fired up while listened to, because it’s heavy and very “loud”, but……. I suppose- one man’s meat, the other man’s poison!
What is Buchstabu????
According to Richard Z. Kruspe, “B********” does not stand for “Bastard”, but for “Bückstabü”, a word made up by the band to mean “whatever you want”
The translation for
hol’ ich mir is wrong.
Hol’ ich mir means “I will get it”,
like I will go and get it, not xxxI get myselfxxx
‘Bückstabü’ kind of sounds like ‘Backstabber’?
Kikmeister – Thanks for that. I never said this translation was perfect
Although if you go along with the title meaning Backstabber, it COULD mean I get myself stabbed in the back! Not really though….
My least favorite song of the CD, I’m hoping that it will grow on me but I don’t know. I absolutely love the rest of the songs on the album but I often find that I skip this one. To each their own I guess.
2nd favorite song next to Mehr
didn’t like it at first but now I just love getting hyped to this song
I think I understand this; because I went through something like this song recently. I found absolute clarity and reached the point where I wondered who I was; I was utterly empty and pointless and the only happiness I could find was in the world around me. Then I remembered who I am and I had to make a decision continue the way where I didn’t follow my heart and continue feeling like nothing or be me. I chose to be me, got kicked out of my home and went looking for the nearest shelter. I couldn’t be sad; I wasn’t living in a delusion or fantasty even though the price was breaking the heart of my best friend and back stabbing her by telling her I slept with her crazy boyfriend (in a cult-this-is-holy-way). For the first time it didn’t matter what others wanted; just what I wanted and I knew who I was through and through. Right now I am the happiest person on earth.
I think “I get myself” means more “I understand myself” like a coming to terms with who he is.
Heidi you got it!! That is the meaning of the song! This song is simply about that person that are inside of us, the wild us, the us that just do not care about what others can think, and like the world Bückstabü, that for me is just like “The tabu the forbidden the “wrong” ” , is your true self without the society restrictions.
I’m just verifying to make sure I understand completely… He said it means whatever the listener wants it to or that it translates to “whatever you want”?
this song kicks ass. love it.
Bückstabü always sounds like Schutzstaffel if I say it with german accent while singing…
“du musst nicht, musst nicht traurig sein”
I believe that would be “You don’t have to be, don’t have to be sad.”
ich bin doch hier
doch is a very hard word to translate in english it can mean so many things but in this context “afer all I am here” would be the best translation in my opinion.
and hol ich mir means I get myself (something) in this case buckstabu( which I have no Idea what means but when i listen to the song I think of bucstabu as somekind of drug or something in that direction.
Alderwolf, would like to talk more marie.heidi2sphinx@yahoo.com
why is it censored if it doesn’t mean bastard?
“Zwei Seelen, ach, in meinem Schoß” remind every German native speaker immediately to “Zwei Seelen, ach, in meiner Brust” (Goethe, Faust) (“Two souls alas! are dwelling in my breast”)
I’m pretty sure Hol’ ich mir wich also means “i get myself” so it could be one sentence that’s been divided, like
Buckstabu; hol ich mir /=/ “I get myself what ever i want”!
earlier they said buckstabu means “what ever you want”
so instead of “i call myself” it should be “i get myself” and in that sense there *could* be rape connotations(and it makes sense for the context of the song[lines 1-4 & chorus], and would make the song more rammstein-ish. …
Jeff – I hear “Backstabber” as well.
The way I understand “hol’ ich mir” is almost like an imperative, albeit with improper grammar. Like he has a voice inside his head, giving him advice that subtly represses who he is as a person, and he’s screaming “bring me back to myself.” It also makes the whole “Backstabber” thing I hear fit. Basically, he’s rebelling against the part of himself that tries to NOT be…himself. Wow, that’s a bit convoluted.
I believe it’s about schizophrenia, disunited and shattered personality. The “evil” voice wants the person to take B********, what may be (as sad) whatever you want, so it may refer to some kind of obsession, like in Mehr. The “good” voice wants the person to “let it be” and “simply say no”, but in the end, the evil voice wins and the person is finally taking B********.
Yeah, you might want to check this entire translation again. ‘Doch’ actually means the opposite of ‘not’.
And as far as I can tell, ‘Bückstabü’ has something to do with, pardon my French, butt-fucking. Just look at the rest of the song.
I think the beggining to this song is so hardcore!
when i heard the first sample to this song, i thought it would be me favorite, and Liebe Ist Fur Alle Da would be my least, but its the other way around.
Backstabu is a pun of buchstab, meaning letter (as in “letter of the law” for example) – hence the “means whatever you want” explanation – the asterisks are whatever letters you want, and the narrator of the song is saying you can call him and his actions whatever you want to call them.
I don’t get it, I think Bückstabü and Mehr are the best songs in the album, but everybody else thinks it’s not as good.
If you ask me, this is definitely not the hardest album they have made, because most of the songs are a mix of pop and metal music.
Am I the only one who think this song is about abortion?
“fass’ das nicht an!” means “don’t touch that!”, I think.
The Abortion idea by Sergei above me, makes sense to me. This chorus here: “Zwei Seelen ‘ach in meinem Schoß,
es kann nur eine überleben!” (Two souls alas in my lap**
There can only be one survivor) makes me think about those freak babies that are born and then turn out to be actually 2 babies but where one fetus absorbed the other and you can still find physical evidence in the surviving one.
The schizophrenia-idea kinda fits too. Where there live 2 and there is only room for one, it usually means that one must/will die/leave so the other one can live. To me this song is ultimately about survival and when it comes to survival: anything goes
I still wander on why it is censored..btw Sjaak’s comment is interesting and possible indeed for an explanation.
Bückstabü means back stabber.. not whatever you want. it just doesnt work that way, german is another language.. not made up.
Actually, Bückstabü is made up since it isn’t in the dictionary and Richard said so.. The word “backstabber” has nothing to do with the song, it wouldn’t be in context.
Though maybe you’re right.
You can make up words in any language. They may sound similar to existing words, but they won’t have any direct meaning in and of themselves. They rely on the creator to give them meaning. So, in this case, Rammstein created a word, but they left the meaning up to the individual. It sounds similar to some things, so you can let those decide how you see it. Or you can ascribe a completely different idea to it. It’s the agony of choice–you have to make your own meaning.
Sorry, Becca, but you’re 100% wrong – even Richard from the band says so!
Maybe part of the meaning of the word is to be a weird plural. As in ein Buchstabe –> zwei Bückstabü. This could be related to ein Haus –> zwei Häuser. Or…?
I feel like the way people decipher the song shows their personality, which is interesting because the song seems to be about an internal conflict with the narrator. Like PowderBlue said, the agony of choice gets the best of people sometimes.
For me, the song is about questioning what happens to you when it is dark and you’re by yourself, hence the first verse. So, when you are finally by yourself, your personal Bückstabü comes out, or tries to at least. However, that voice behind your face wants to repress your Bückstabü, so its a matter of if you will let it out or not.
Bückstabü has Bück in it, which means to bend over. stabü on the other hand is untranslatable.
Ok, I’ve noticed some people thinking “hol’ ich mir” is “I get myself,” but wouldn’t it be “I fetch to me?” So “Bückstabü I bring to me…” If it were I get myself, then it would be “ich hole mich” and I don’t think that makes sense. Anyway, I’m not a native speaker so this is just my humble opinion after about 4 years of German study.
I’m Dutch so I got English and German in school for six years.
The translation, as it is posted here, is not correct.
What Till sings is : Don’t be scared, after all I’m here, I am very very close to you..
And then he’s trying to stop himself (‘Don’t do it, don’t grab it’)
So I think it’s either about raping or killing someone (probably both) but I’m not sure.
I do not understand why there is so much variation on what this means, it is quite straight forward and the reason it is blocked out. Bückstabü means (I cannot put the literal translation because it will be censored) “an act performed commonly by homosexual males” if you follow.. Back Stabber is a QUITE literal translation in that regard, or “Stuck in the rear”
I think the above idea is good. Like someone said before, Bück means to bend over. Stabü could be a cognate for the english word ’stab’, put these ideas together and you could get a vulgar and harsh name for the homosexual act.
“ich bin doch hier” doesn’t mean “I am not yet here”.
It’s more like “since I’m here” or “afer all I am here” as mentioned before. “doch” is hard to translate into english.
CORRECTION.
the song is about rape.
“Fass’ das nicht an” means “Don’t touch that”
“Bückstabü (what ever i want)i get myself”
he is alone with a girl and at night he tries to rape her while she says “dont do that, dont touch that etc.” and then the chorus “i get myself (Bückstabü) what ever i want”
also,
ich bin doch hier (i am here after all)
Ich bin ja, bin ganz nah bei dir. (i am, am really close to you)
in this case the word “ja” does not mean “yes”, it is used the same as the word “doch” (which does not exist in english)
so he says “i am (after all), am really close to you”
“doch” is a difficult word, it can mean “yes” or “after all”
Example:
“du bist nicht nett” (you are not nice)
“doch, bin ich” (yes, i am) or (am too)
“ich bin doch der beste” (after all, i am the best)
Different voices don’t naturally mean schizophrenia, it’s a pretty common way to describe what’s going on in your head around wanting something that is taboo or bad. So you could say the voices are desire and moral.
If you take this in sexual context, it could mean rape or
intercourse in the rear. I personally don’t think it’s about homosexual acts, since that kind of intercourse isn’t too rare or taboo amongst homosexuals. Since he also comforts the person in a scary way, it’s more likely that he wants it and the other person (if it’s even a person) doesn’t.
Zwei Seelen ‘ach in meinem Schoß,
es kann nur eine überleben!
Beim ersten Mal tut es nicht weh,
ein zweites Mal wird es nicht geben!
This one is hard to fit in the raping context though. So it could even be something entirely different.
Well… This song always reminds me of some kind of Boogeyman, real or figurative. I don’t think that the meaning of “Bückstabü” is as important as the feelings that the song causes… It’s really disturbing…
I do not think that this songs talks about homosexuality in any way. I believe is more about what the majority has said: Two souls under one Chest! Desire vs Society and such…but I guess as someone said, everyone finds their own interpretation of the song within themselves and I think that is the beauty of Rammstein. Look at Nebel, Reise Reise and many others, there’s never one fit denomination. Just like studying literature, which kind of makes sense with Till, since he is a poet. But very good opinions, I love this site, I will start posting replies more often. Man, people have some good ass ideas!! Keep up the good work my fellow Rammstein interpreters of the inner voices!!!
I’m totally seeing the foremost interpretation to be abortion. Not a single line contradicts this meaning.
if you think Buckstabu litterly means “whatever you/I want”… you’ve totally missed the point
here “hinter dem Gesicht” means “out of sight” (literally – behind the view) as Gesicht is basically “face”, “appearance” or “sight/view” (sometimes “hallucination”)
Heidi…. thanks for that bit of clarification… but wow, you’re gross. I believe the reason it is ‘censored” is to indicate that the meaning is obscure, not to hide the word itself. being unable to see what it is, being unable to understand forces you to interpret it for yourself. I’m guessing the point of the song is the same. I’ve noticed that it make many of you think about things you’ve been through in your own lives, or uncomfortable situations that speak to you for some reason or another. Homosexuality, abortion, backstabbing (cough cough Heidi), or even the misinterpretation of the word Bastard. all uncomfortable heartbreaking descisions and realizations in life that require self identification and a check on who you are and where your life is going. Thank you Rammstein for asking us to find ourselves through this song.
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