When I was in school, I absolutely couldn’t stand the German language. It always seemed awful to me, grating on my ears. Like the sound of chalk screeching on a blackboard.
I studied English in school (though all I really got out of it was “My name is Vasya”), while my mom had studied German and knew it quite well. She used to say that German was a very beautiful language, and she had come to appreciate its beauty thanks to an excellent German teacher in her school. But I just couldn’t understand how anyone could find it beautiful!
Later on, I worked for a German company for seven years, spending a lot of time on business trips to Dresden and visiting many other German cities. And, you know, over time, I got used to the language. I learned a few basic phrases, enough to comfortably buy groceries, talk to waiters, and shop for tea in specialty stores (there’s a funny story about that, but I’ll save it for another time). I even began to sense a unique kind of beauty in the German language. It really does sound very different from many other European languages, but the chalkboard-screech feeling eventually disappeared.
Around that time, I also got into the band Rammstein, right when their album Mutter (“Mother”) came out in 2001. I didn’t understand the lyrics at all (apart from a few individual words), but that was never all that important to me. I’ve mentioned before that, for me, a singer’s voice is just another instrument with its own unique sound. I often don’t even pay attention to the lyrics.
Rammstein has always been known for their extravagance and provocativeness, which made their lyrical ballads, performed in Till Lindemann’s powerful, raspy voice, all the more surprising and captivating.
The album Mutter was supposed to include such a ballad, Ohne Dich (“Without You”), but it ended up being released on their next album, Reise, Reise, in 2004. Unlike many of their other songs, I at least understood the title of this one, so I could guess the theme. But I never really looked into the lyrics (I recently read them—nothing particularly special).
Still, it’s one of my favorite songs. And the music video they made for it is absolutely fantastic—no knowledge of the language is needed; the visuals say it all.
So, if anyone hasn’t seen it yet, I’m excited to share this wonderful ballad with you.
P.S. And let me also remind you that Till Lindemann recently sang in Russian.
