Humanoid – „Träumer” translation

Posted in Uncategorized on 29 October 2009 by traumseherin

  • Black eyes
    Black lips
    You stand before me
    Don’t let the future
    Spill away[1]
    Let us
    Go far from here

  • We have us
    We have fear
    We have no destination[2]
    We are dreamers
    We have us
    We have fear
    Holding us by the hand
    We are dreamers
    We are dreamers
    We are dreamers

  • White fog
    White moonlight
    Shining bright
    Just like you
    When you make it
    Then come with me
    I’ll put your doubts
    To rest[3]

  • We had everything given to us
    We had everything taken from us
    We had everything handed to us[4]
    Until we came here

  • Don’t wake us up
    When the morning comes
    We’re alone
    We’d rather be dreamers
[1] „lass die Zukunft / nochmal kippen” – “Let the future no more turn over”. The relevant image is of overturning a bowl or a cup and spilling the contents.
[2] „Wir kommen nirgendwo an” – “We’re arriving nowhere”.
[3] „Ich mache die / rugen zu” – „Rugen” means “to reprove” or “to censure”; „zumachen” is “to shut (away)”. So, taking reproaches and shutting them away.
[4] „Ham uns alles vergeben” – „vergeben” is “to award”, i.e., to acquire without having to work for it.

Humanoid – „Zoom” translation

Posted in Uncategorized on 29 October 2009 by traumseherin

  • Are you out there somewhere
    Alone with yourself
    Have you run off somewhere
    Without knowing why
    A heartbeat
    That no one feels
    Are you out there somewhere
    Too weak to cry
    In front of all humanity
    Running away
    To be alone
    I see you
    Looking through the night

  • Zoom yourself to me
    I zoom myself to you
    We would shine
    Far away from here
    Zoom yourself to me

  • Are you laughing somewhere
    Out there
    With tears
    On your face
    Are you screaming
    Somewhere out there
    Until the silence breaks
    I see you
    Don’t give up now

  • I see you
    Do you see me

  • Far away from here
    Through space and time
    Zoom yourself to me
    Zoom yourself to me
    I zoom myself to you
    Through the storm
    Through the cold of the night
    And the fears within you
    Far away from here
    Through space and time
    Zoom yourself to me
No specific notes here — very straightforward, other than the use of “zoom” as a transitive verb. „Zoom dich zu mir” sounds just as purposely odd in German as “Zoom yourself to me” does in English. Generally this sort of mucking about with language stems from the same thing that makes them think telling people things are “Big cinema” in English is hilarious, which probably drove their language teachers bonkers when they still got marched into school every day.

Humanoid – „Geisterfahrer”

Posted in Uncategorized on 29 October 2009 by traumseherin

Note: „Geisterfahrer” is an idiomatic term for someone who is driving in a more than ordinarily suicidal fashion on the Autobahn, i.e., top speed in the wrong direction. Literally, it translates to “phantom-driver” or “ghost driver”. It probably has cultural connections to stories of ghostly horsemen, riding head-on and hell-bent-for-leather at innocent travelers who are on their roads too late at night, a motif common in the folklore of northern Europe, but mostly the idea is that driving like that put you one wrong, stupid move from haunting the road you died on.

  • Gasoline in blood
    I’m doing fine[1]
    It’s not far until
    The last exit
    Flies by[2]
    Metal vibrates
    Under me
    On the way to you
    Stars fall on the horizon
    I pull the wheel around

  • Kiss me now
    In the oncoming lights[3]
    Like a phantom driver
    I seek you out
    The night is cold
    I drive alone
    Like a phantom driver
    To finally be with you

  • Adrenaline
    Propped me up[4]
    Got no fear
    The road turns itself in front of me
    I pull
    The wheel around

  • I don’t know you
    And believe in that
    That I can make it
    To you
    Make it to you[5]

  • (Female vocals[6]:
    I’m here
    Just behind you
    Phantom driver
    I’m with you
    ‘Til your final lap[7])

  • Kiss me now
    In the oncoming lights
    Like a phantom driver
    I seek you out
    The night is cold
    I drive alone
    Like a phantom driver
    To finally be with you

  • Hey
    I am
    With you
    I am here
    …here

  • I oughtn’t be here
    Phantom drivers
    Always drive alone
[1] „Mir geht’s gut” – “It’s okay by me”, “I’m doing all right,” “I’m fine”.
[2] „Ist nicht mehr weit / die letzte Ausfahrt / zieht vorbei” – “It’s not much longer [until] the last road-exit is past”
[3] „Im Gegenlicht” – usually this means “in backlight”, but given the rest of the song, I suspect it’s meant a bit more literally, “against-lights”, i.e., the headlights of the oncoming cars.
[4] „Adrenalin / hält mich war” – “Adrenaline was holding me”
[5] „ich’s zu schaffen kann” – “I can achieve it”, or “I can manage it”
[6] These are actually not printed in the booklet. Neither are there any credits for the girl who sings them. The part isn’t long, isn’t difficult, and I don’t know of anyone who has stood up to claim credit for it, so it’s probably either someone who’s a singer in her own right, or just someone they already happened to know.
[7] „Auf deinem letzten Stück” – a „Stück” is a “piece” or a “part” or a “length” of something. In context, it would be a length of road, or a lap in a race.

Humanoid – „Alien” translation

Posted in Uncategorized on 29 October 2009 by traumseherin

  • My heart fights
    Against me
    Like an alien in me
    I stand up
    Turn around, all is smeared in blood
    I look in the mirror
    And there it is written[1]

  • Breathe your love into me
    I want to be with you finally

  • I’m sick
    Without you
    I’ve tried poisons
    One by one
    And now I let
    Myself loose
    Lay me on the fire
    And look in the heavens
    And hear your voice

  • Breathe your love into me
    I want to be with you finally
    Breathe new life into me
    Do you hear my soul screaming

  • Wake me up from this
    Dream
    (Alien seeking love)
    Let me loose, let me out of here
    (Alien seeking love)
    Your love
[1] „Und da steht geschrieben” – “And there stands it written”. The kind of portentious, passive phrasing you get when talking about prophecies in fairy tales.

Humanoid – „Menschen suchen Menschen” translation

Posted in Uncategorized on 28 October 2009 by traumseherin

  • In dreams, in all
    In storm, in freefall
    From hate, from need
    From love until the death
    You look for me, I look for you

  • Humans[1] seeking humans
    Someone looks for everyone[2]
    Humans needing humans
    We don’t want to be alone
    Humans seeking humans
    Somewhere you’re looking for me
    Six billion humans
    How can I make contact with you

  • On a high[3]
    On the ‘Net
    In film
    In here and now
    For me, for the heart
    For the life I feel empty
    You look in me, I look in you

  • How do I find my way to you
    Find your way to me
    How do I find my way to you
    Find your way to me
    Seek me
    Seek me
    Seek me
    I seek you
[1] „Menschen” is often translated as “men”, but „Mensch” is “man” as in “mankind”. No gender specified or implied. In the English “Human Connect To Human”, one of the lines of the chorus is “Boy meet girl, know what to do”, which unavoidably specifies a gender in English — presumably this annoyed them, so they switch it up for one of the later repeats and sing “Girl meet girl, know what to do” instead.
[2] „Jeder sucht für sich allein” – it’s phrased in the singular, which is difficult to do in proper English. The idea is “for any given individual, someone is searching specifically for him/her”, or more informally, “No matter who you are, there’s someone looking just for you”.
[3] „im Rausch” – “in a rush”, not like “rushing to do something”, but like “head rush” or “that was such a rush”. „Rausch” is used to describe that altered state of mind where things seem to blast past you, whether from a drug high, from being drunk, or from being in a state of religious, spiritual or physical ecstacy.
General Note: „Suchen” means “to look (for)”, “to search (for)” or “to seek (out)”. The third application is used in the context of computers, for what English calls a “disk seek” or “seek operation”, where a hard drive or a CD/DVD drive runs through the iterative process of finding a particular file that the user wishes to access; “seek time”, the speed at which the drive can deliver an arbitrary chunk of data, is important for applications like video editing, where faster is better. In the second sense, it’s used for “to search” as in “online, with a search engine”, like Google. Finally, „(jmnd.) sucht (jmnd.)” is how you start personal ads in German, just as you start them “(someone) seeking (someone)” in English, e.g., “Single man seeking single woman for companionship and long walks on the beach.” The common element in all of these is the process of going methodically through impersonal channels to find something that has a very personal significance on the other end.

Humanoid – „Hunde” translation

Posted in Uncategorized on 28 October 2009 by traumseherin

  • We’d no longer hear you
    We’d no longer be sworn to you
    We’re swallowing no more lies
    No more
    Your truth
    Won’t be ours
    Your masks
    Our faces
    Our eyes
    Need light
    A lot more light

  • Loose the hounds[1]
    I’m warning you
    Loose the hounds
    Don’t follow us

  • Loose the hounds
    We know the way
    Got dreams you don’t understand
    Before it happens[2]
    Under you
    We suffocate

  • Loose the hounds
    Loose the hounds
    Loose the hounds
    Set us free!
    Set us free!

  • We’re rich in blood[3] and love of the wild
    We bite all who dog us[4]
    The moon is our reflection[5]
    Tonight

  • Loose the hounds
    I’m warning you
    Loose the hounds
    Don’t follow us

  • Hunt us, track us
    By the full moon
    Hunt us, track us
    By the full moon
    Track us, hunt us
    In the abyss
    Let us loose
    Let us loose at last
    Let us loose
    Set us free!
[1] „Lass die Hunde los” – “Let the hounds loose”. Literally it means “Release the hounds [from their confinement/from their leashes]“, but, as in English, it also happens to be the thing you shout if you’re the owner of a large manor house, and you want the servants to let the guard dogs loose to chase someone undesireable off the grounds.
[2] „Bevor was passiert / unter euch / ersticken wir” – “Before what passes / under you / we suffocate”. More colloquially, “Before what happens is that we suffocate under you.” An exact equivalent to the German construction doesn’t exist in English.
[3] „Wir reichen Blut” – „reichen” is somewhat problematic in English, as it has several possible translations, none of which are phrased quite the same as the German. It can mean “to rule”, as in a kingdom, “to be rich”, or “to reach”. My guess is that the idea is that they’re ‘true-blooded wild things’ or something like that — truly feral creatures. The song does seem to be about werewolves, after all, at least metaphorically.
[4] Sorry, couldn’t resist. „Wir beissen jeden der uns quält” – “We bite all who [qualen] us”, where „qualen” is to plague, hassle, harass, or generally cross paths with and annoy repeatedly.
[5] „Spiegelbild” – literally, “mirror-image”, usually “reflection”.

Humanoid – „Der Kampfe der Liebe” translation

Posted in Uncategorized on 28 October 2009 by traumseherin

  • You do me good
    You do me wrong[1]
    I’m in the battle of love
    Running through coals
    Marching through snow
    Just for the battle of love
    Black is the night
    I hold myself awake
    Red is the battle of love
    I feel the force
    I feel weak
    I’m fighting the battle of love

  • When I wake up[2]
    When I wake up
    When I finally wake up
    I don’t know how long
    Don’t know how long
    How long I can keep fighting

  • Through the fire cold and alone
    The flames lead me to you

  • And then we’ll fight together[3]
    The battle of love love love

  • You need seek no
    Antidote
    You want the battle of love
    It never passes[4]

  • Because it’s in you
    You’re the battle of love
    From noon to night[5]
    Leads the battle of love
    You feel free and are caught
    You’re fighting the battle of love

  • When I wake up
    When I wake up
    When I finally wake up
    I don’t know how long
    Don’t know how long
    How long I can keep fighting

  • I run through the streets
    Through the deserts
    To you
    We seal our pact
    I fight for you and you for me
    Forever

  • When we wake up
    When we wake up
    When we finally wake up
    Don’t know how long
    Don’t know how long
    How long we can keep fighting

[1] „Du tust mir gut / du tust mir weh” — “You’re doing good [things for] me / you’re doing bad [things for] me”.
[2] „Wann komm ich an” – “When I come to,” i.e., when I wake from a dream or when I regain consciousness.
[3] „gemeinsam” – both „gemeinsam” and „zusammen” are translated as “together”, but „gemeinsam” carries a connotation of emotional solidarity that „zusammen” doesn’t necessarily have. Not only are you “with” or “in agreement with” someone, but you are also connected to them and will stand united with them. Used to much the same effect in „In die Nacht”: „Ich will nicht allein sein / lass uns gemeinsam / in die Nacht”.
[4] „Es geht nie vorbei” – “It goes never past” or “It goes never into the past”.
[5] „von Höhenpunkt zum Untergang” – “from the high-point to the sunset”

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