Nana's Lied
Translations
Gentlemen, at seventeen years of age
I came onto the Love Market,
and I have learned much.
Evils there were many
however that was the game,
But much I still resented.
(When all is said and done, I'm only a human being, too.)
Thank God it all goes by quickly
Both the love and even the sorrow.
Where are last night’s tears?
Where is the snow from past years?
Freely one passes the years
more easily on the love market
and one embraces them there in droves.
But one’s feelings become astoundingly cool
when one is stingy with them.
(After all everything is used up eventually.)
Thank God it all goes by quickly
Both the love and even the sorrow.
Where are last night’s tears?
Where is the snow from past years?
And although one learns the business well
On the love market:
To exchange lust for pocket money
Becomes however never easy.
Now it is achieved.
But meanwhile one becomes older.
(After all one doesn’t always remain seventeen.)
Thank God it all goes by quickly
Both the love and even the sorrow.
Where are last night’s tears?
Where is the snow from past years?
Bilbao Song
Bill's ballroom in Bilbao
was the most beautiful on the whole continent.
There was noise and bliss for a dollar
and what the world calls her own.
But if you had come in there
I don't know if you would have liked it that much.
Oh! Brandy laughs were where you sat
the grass grew on the dance floor
and the green moon shone through the roof,
there was music,
You could complain for your money!
Joe, play the music from back then!
Old Bilbao Moon!
Where love still pays...
(I don't know the text anymore.
It's been a long, long time!)
I don't know if you would have liked something like that, but:
it was the most beautiful thing in the world.
Berlin im Licht
And when you go for a walk,
the sunlight may be enough,
but to light the city of Berlin,
the sun is not enough.
This is no little hicktown.
This is one helluva city!
If you want to see everything you can,
You have to use a few watts!
So what then? So what then?
What kind of a city is it then?
Come, turn on the lights so we can see what there is to see!
Come, turn on the lights and don't say another word.
Come, turn on the lights, so we can see for sure what the big deal is: Berlin in lights!
Youkali
It is almost at the end of the world,
my vagabond board,
wandering at the will of the sea,
led me there one day.
The island is entirely small,
but the fairy who dwells there
politely invites us to tour it.
Youkali,
it is the land of our desires,
it is happiness, it is pleasure,
it is the land one leaves all his worries,
it is, on our night, like a sunny spell, the star that one follows, it’s Youkali.
it is the respect of all of the exchanged vows,
it is the land of the beautiful shared loves,
it is the hope that is in the heart of all humans,
the deliverance that we are waiting for until tomorrow,
but it is a dream, a folly, there is no Youkali!
And life drags us along,
weary, daily,
but the poor human soul,
seeking obliviously everywhere,
has known how to find the mystery
in order to leave the earth,
where our dreams are buried
in some Youkali.
Youkali,
it is the land of our desires,
it is happiness, it is pleasure,
it is the land one leaves all his worries,
it is, on our night, like a sunny spell, the star that one follows, it’s Youkali.
it is the respect of all of the exchanged vows,
it is the land of the beautiful shared loves,
it is the hope that is in the heart of all humans,
the deliverance that we are waiting for until tomorrow,
but it is a dream, a folly, there is no Youkali!
