Heartland

I was just wondering if anyone can, or knows, the english translations of the two German run out messages for the following MR releases?

Alice 12"
A-Side
JM WESTEN NICHTS NEUES - JESUS LOVES THE SISTERS
MEIN IRISCH KIND, WO WEILEST DU?
B-Side
FOR SPIGGY (FOREIGN FIELD)

GIFT L.P.
A-Side
VERTEIDIGUNGSKRIEG - A GIFT FROM THE RASPBERRY REICH
B-Side
...UND JETZT KONNEN WIR VIELLEICHT SCHLAFEN, ODER?
Gift - A: "a gift from the raspberry reich" and "verteidigungskrieg"


While google translate is an option, I was hoping that their might be some added interpretation...?

Cheers

The first Alice one is "All Quiet on the Western Front".

The second is directly lifted from TS Eliot's The Wasteland: http://www.bartleby.com/201/1.html

Google Translate gives me:

The fresh wind blows
The homeland,
My Irish child,
Where are you now?

For Gift, and again using Google Translate, I get "DEFENCE WAR" (I'm sure there's a more fitting translation, but nonetheless it seems apt) and the fairly confusing "NOW YOU CAN ... AND WE MAY SLEEP, OR?".

Looking here: http://1959.tsom.org/sishood_notes.html I see "Defensive Warfare" and "and now, perhaps, we can sleep, can't we?"; Google's fine for the first (it actually sounds a little better) but made a mess of the second, which makes more sense here.

"... Und jetz können wir..." appears to me to close the book on the Sisterhood debacle with a touch of condescension. Also gives Von a chance to shove his German/European culturedness in the face of the British audience, which he seems to enjoy.

The Waste Land's "mein irisch Kind" is of course quoted in turn from Tristan und Isolde.

Brisk blows the wind
Towards home
My Irish child
Where lingerst thou?

(I did my best, it wasn't much. I'll try to write some ideas about how the quotation might relate to the song later.)

"Mein Irisch Kind, wo weilest du?" is from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde:

"The wind blows fresh
To the Homeland
My Irish Girl
Where are you lingering?"

In a 1941 propaganda appeal to soldiers on the stalling Eastern Front, Hitler described the situation as "a defensive war on the move".

"The Raspberry Reich" was a term coined by Baader-Meinhof leader Gudrun Ensslin to refer to the oppression of consumerism.

A better translation of "und jetzt können wir vielleicht schlafen, oder?" would be "and now can we perhaps get some sleep?" Presumably it's also a quote from German history but I don't know the origin.

Edit: centurionofprix beat me to the Wagner quote while I was sorting the rest. NB the first line of that may be referenced in 1959 ("And the wind blows wild").

I think that Verteidigungskrieg may have been intended to be similar in sense (if not in literal translation) to Jihad.

Also, don't forget that Gift is German for poison.

markfiend wrote:I think that Verteidigungskrieg may have been intended to be similar in sense (if not in literal translation) to Jihad.

agreed. a non-secular "holy" war, if such contradiction was possible.

The "Verteidigungskrieg" does not refer to a secular version of a Jihad or holy war at all, it simply describes the act of the defending nation fighting back against an attacker. It is the only "legitimate" way any nation may wage according to Public International Law since the Briand-Kellogg pact was established.

However, it's mostly down to public opinion on what is considered defensive measures, for instance Hitler tried selling Germany's invasion of Poland in 1939 as an act of defense.

In the quote I mentioned above, Hitler used "Verteidigungskrieg" as a propagandist statement to say that, while it looked as if the Eastern front was stalling and the German army was on the defensive, really they were still attacking. A fairly good desscription of the circumstances behind Gift's release.

Link

Heartless wrote:The "Verteidigungskrieg" does not refer to a secular version of a Jihad or holy war at all, it simply describes the act of the defending nation fighting back against an attacker. It is the only "legitimate" way any nation may wage according to Public International Law since the Briand-Kellogg pact was established.

Yeah, this might be the reason why some coutries have "defense forces" instead of an "army",
implying by the name already that all actions of these forces can never be but in defense ...

stufarq wrote: "The Raspberry Reich" was a term coined by Baader-Meinhof leader Gudrun Ensslin to refer to the oppression of consumerism.

Good find! As I was a kid at the time of the RAF,
"Raspberry Reich" always reminded my of heathen, rather, than anything political ...

stufarq wrote:

mh wrote:.... "and now, perhaps, we can sleep, can't we?"

A better translation of "und jetzt können wir vielleicht schlafen, oder?" would be "and now can we perhaps get some sleep?" Presumably it's also a quote from German history but I don't know the origin.

I'd chose for "... and now we might be able to sleep, or not even yet?

Being645 wrote:

stufarq wrote: "The Raspberry Reich" was a term coined by Baader-Meinhof leader Gudrun Ensslin to refer to the oppression of consumerism.

Good find! As I was a kid at the time of the RAF,
"Raspberry Reich" always reminded my of heathen, rather, than anything political ...

In Britain we still inaccurately call the Red Army Faction "Baader-Meinhof" because the RAF is our Royal Air Force.

Being645 wrote:

stufarq wrote:

mh wrote:.... "and now, perhaps, we can sleep, can't we?"

A better translation of "und jetzt können wir vielleicht schlafen, oder?" would be "and now can we perhaps get some sleep?" Presumably it's also a quote from German history but I don't know the origin.

I'd chose for "... and now we might be able to sleep, or not even yet?

I'll certainly bow to your superior German. Phrased that way, it sounds more like something Von might say in a concert: "Can we get some sleep now? Maybe not." Ring any bells with anyone?

'and now we might be able to sleep'

is correct

black king takes white knight with extreme prejudice... mumble mumble, sits down and starts signing about gold

stufarq wrote:

Being645 wrote:

stufarq wrote: "The Raspberry Reich" was a term coined by Baader-Meinhof leader Gudrun Ensslin to refer to the oppression of consumerism.

Good find! As I was a kid at the time of the RAF,
"Raspberry Reich" always reminded my of heathen, rather, than anything political ...

In Britain we still inaccurately call the Red Army Faction "Baader-Meinhof" because the RAF is our Royal Air Force.

... I should have known ... "RAF" is always a say complicated term ...

Btw, I have forgotten where to put the comma - before or after "say"?

We're fond of, comma abuse. Just, stick them in any, old where.

"Raspbery Reich" sounds like a Prince out-take

markfiend wrote:We're fond of, comma abuse. Just, stick them in any, old where.

Syberberg wrote:

markfiend wrote:We're fond of, comma abuse. Just, stick them in any, old where.

... good to know; for my traumatised memory renders me so brain-dead at times that I can hardly speak at all ...

D'aw. I'm sure we'll understand you

LyanvisAberrant wrote:D'aw. I'm sure we'll understand you

Fortunately ... ...