Die Traumseherin

Humanoid – „Träumer” translation

traumseherin — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:03:01 +0000

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

traumseherin — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:40:26 +0000

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”

traumseherin — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:32:02 +0000

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

traumseherin — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:28:37 +0000

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

traumseherin — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:12:09 +0000

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

traumseherin — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:44:46 +0000

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

traumseherin — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:21:14 +0000

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”

Humanoid – „Für Immer Jetzt” translation

traumseherin — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:59:24 +0000

I see you crying
And nobody wipes the tears away
I hear you screaming
Because the silence suffocates you
I feel your heart
It’s lonely just like you
Let yourself fall
Close your eyes
Hey
The world stops for you
Hey
Here in my arms
Forever now
When you search
And lose yourself in looking
Then I find you
And draw you to me
Hey
The world stops for you
Hey
Here in my arms
For one day
For one night
For one moment
Wherein you laugh
We break through time
Against every law
Forever you and I
Forever now
We put ourselves
Together[1]
We are one like yin and yang
Do you feel me
When you breathe
Do you feel me
When no one’s there

[1] „Wir setzen unsere Scherben / zusammen” – “We put together our fragments” or “We assemble our pieces”, as with a jigsaw puzzle, or to repair a broken item.

Humanoid – „Humanoid” translation

traumseherin — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:51:14 +0000

Against love, against hate
Against the sun, against the night
Against the rules, against what is[1]
Against it all, against it all
I am
Humanoid oh humanoid oh
Give me life, give me air
My heart keeps beating
Because it must
I run with my shadows
Trailing me, give me more
Give me more, always more
Humanoid oh humanoid oh
Humanoid come back
Humanoid come back and
Take my heart
Take my grief
Between the worlds
Am I caught
Coordinates unknown
Hold me or I’ll fall
Hold me
I don’t want my heart
I don’t want my grief
I don’t want my head
Don’t want shit
Don’t want dirt
Don’t want
Take my heart
Take my grief
I can’t go on
Hold me
Between the worlds
Am I caught
Coordinates unknown
Hold me or I’ll fall
Hold me give me what I
Can feel
And show me
What I can see
Between the worlds
Am I caught
Coordinates unknown
Against the rules
Against what is
Against it all
Against it all

[1] „Gegen Macht” — “against [things already] made”. Usually referred to in English as ‘the Man’ or ‘the Establishment’ by hippies and rebellious teenagers.

Humanoid – „Lass uns Laufen” translation

traumseherin — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:23:03 +0000

The rain is loud
Out there and in here
It’s gray
The dark walls[1] have my
Sight lines[2] blocked
The lights go out
I lock all the doors
The room full
Of visions of you
My heartbeat lets
The floor expand
I have nothing more
To lose
Oh
Let us run
When the darkness comes
Somewhere our future has
Begun
Past the horizon
Oh
Let us run
Until the night brightens[3]
And until the last rain
Of the world
Falls over us
I seem to go
I let the clouds
Pull me to and fro[4]
And count each step
Senselessly
To anywhere[5]
I don’t know what comes
I don’t know what was
I only know
You’re not here anymore
The wind wakes me up
I notice I’m running
How painful is too painful
How far is too far
Where is the beginning
And the end of time
Give me some sense
Please bring me inside
Let us run…

[1] „Mauern” can also be “shells” or “shields”.
[2] „Fluchtpunkt” literally means “vanishing point”, as in the vanishing point used in art and drafting to draw guidelines for correct perspective. Metaphorically, it’s the most distant point of your line of sight — the very farthest you can see, which on a clear day in an open area on Earth is generally the horizon.
[3] „bis die Nacht sich erhellt” — “until the night lightens itself”
[4] „Ich lass mich von dem Wolken mitziehen” — “I allow myself to be pulled by the clouds”
[5] „Irgendwohin” — to/in somewhere, anywhere, nowhere, no particular place