c.ancer (you're not on the clock anymore)

original title: "k.rebs (du bist nicht mehr auf der uhr)"

i am calm;
don't have to see my hands anymore.
searching for my island
and breathing your haze.

that tastes severe an salty
the mussels are aware of that!
a glance ahead comes to a standstill
loses itself densely in white.

    hollowly a foghorn chimes far away --
    you cannot seduce me!
    i know exactly where i'm heading;
    (and surely the water rises...)

wading barefoot towards you,
yelling for you like child;
then i listen to your soughing blood:
the tidal creek fancied afar

where you were land you want to become water --
your womb a wide wetness

right now it swollows my tramps
as if it was writing your name.

    a lighthouse shimmers far away:
    you won't seduce me!
    i already know where you are hiding;
    (and surely the water rises...)

    furthertramping,
    deeperwading,
    lungfull the white;

      no more search for ahead and behind,
      i am within!

    my wings drink you;
    air like fresh milk.

      upper- or difference:

      do you want me?
      do i want you?

... how soft you really are ...

comment: this is really a tough one. "schleier" ("haze") would actually translate as "veil", so it's not that clear in german where this is going. the second half resists translating, hence approximations like "furthertramping, deeperwading, lungfull" or "upper- or difference" appear.

how soft

original title: "wie weich"

when the cuddlesome
    finger wool
of your hands

    like dancing

weaves itself to my calm silk of soul
    and we can let our heads
      to pillows
      of kisses
    lower themselves freely

that's the matter
my dreams are made of
for quite some time

    how soft you really are

the blue room.

original title: "das blaue zimmer."

each night we steal from you
the moon into our heaven
hoping nobody notices it.

we colour every dream
with the blue from our eyes
— may!

    if you gave me just a little of your time
    my heart would become a dove
    it would safely find it's way back to you from anywhere
    back
    to you.
    
if you can understand me
each of my words can become
a thistle bud
inside your warm chest 

    give it love and light
    because it won't blossom on its own
    i never feel alone while you're there
    'farewell — i love you.'

comment: some lines were changed in position, otherwise the translation wouldn't make sense at all. also note that while the original poem as well as the printed lyrics on "museon" read "eine rosenknospe sein" ("become a rose bud"), the actual sung lyrics on the record miraculously changed to "eine distelknospe sein" ("become a thistle bud").

for a fistful of sugar

original title: "für eine hand voll zucker"

i open my eyelids
to find myself alone again

i closed them when you said:
i'll stay with you forever.

    did i sleep late,
    dream of us but not experience it?
    or was it the one moment too many for us
    and it was suddenly to late?

i close my eyelids
all of a sudden you are back.

i want to open them again
it's like it used to be...

    didn't you forget something,
    missed to explain something?
    will i have to endure, what can't be,
    in each and every moment?

»i close my arms
and catch you in them.

i won't open them again,
i'll stay with you forever.

    that's how you make me happy
    and i'll take care that you won't feel cold,
    or perhaps i'll crush you,
    so that on my happiness you'll...«

i wish you will be seized
by my sugar petting hand;

it will pull you off from the sea of tears
back to me ashore,

    then i'll dye you adequately:
    in favourite flower black.
    and i'll plant you in oblivion
    so that you've never been with me.

        a fistful of sugar,
        a fistful of salt,
        one is being promised
        the other handed out.
        
        a fistful of bees,
        a fistful of flies,
        while honey is adored,
        the mess is kept concealed.