Monday, March 14, 2005

Deutsch tune

Last week was the final week of regular classes for my Deutsch class. We were encouraged to do any kind of project for extra points (or "pluspunkte") if we desired. So how could I pass up an opportunity to do a song auf Deutsch?! The result was "Ich habe keine angst," or "I have no fear." I have posted it below in mp3 format...just click on the image below, which was the cover I put together for the CD.

Be aware that the mp3 is about 2 megs, so it could take a few minutes if you don't have broadband. Argotnaut has Quicktime installed as her default mp3 player, and it apparently will stream mp3s. Who knew? Not me. Leave it to Apple-designed applications, which seem to work with a minimum of fuss. "But where's the challenge?" I say! Those of you who prefer a streaming experience -- and who doesn't? -- can copy and paste this URL into your RealMedia Player, and it should stream: http://frinkenstein.com/Ich_habe_keine_angst.rm
I tried to do a link to the RealMedia file but it wouldn't work for some reason.

Anyway, the tune turned out okay, considering I'm no audio engineer and it was essentially a "one-off" thing. On Wednesday, the class is having its "final," which is a mandatory pot luck where we will all get together for snacks and receive our grades. The instructor plans to play the tune then. I'm curious about the reaction of my classmates..."Uh, yeah...um...that was really...um...interesting."

The good thing is that this exercise got me off my lazy ass a bit to start composing and recording again. That's good news for ME; I don't know if it's good news for any afflicted audience! (P.S. -- Argotnaut helps out with backing vocals.)


Here are the lyrics:

Ich habe keine Angst
Ich verstehe, ich kenne deinen Name.
Ich kenne dein Gesicht.
Du darfts nicht sagen wie ich Leben.
Ich höre dich nicht

Das Leben ist kurz, Ich muss es leben.
Es ist ein Geschenk. Ich muss es geben.

Ich habe keine angst.

Ich weiß es nicht immer leicht ist.
Ich weiß ich manchmal Zweifele habe.
Ich werde halten nicht, vor ich beginne.
Ich will keine bewegende leiche sein.

You can copy and paste the lyrics in Altavista's babelfish translator, although, as usual, some of the stuff comes out all crooked. ("Weiß" is interpreted as "white" instead of "know," which is an understandable faux pas given that "Weiß ("white") is also a form of "wissen" (to know). And the translator doesn't recognize "darfts nicht" as "must not." But possibly you'll get the gist. If you listen to the tune and don't like it, well, sorry to waste your time. And if you do, drink a toast to these guys and these guys.

5 comments:

argotnaut said...

Ugh! Must re-do mine.

liz said...

Genau; I also want not to be a moving corpse!

Anonymous said...

by Devon:
My creative and talented family never cease to amaze me.

Andrew said...

A little story about the "moving corpse" line. I had tried to say auf Deutsche: "I don't want to be a dead man walking." However, according to Argotnaut, that was idomatic English and didn't translate well. Hence, the "I don't want to be a moving corpse" compromise. I meant to ask my German professor today at the potluck about it, but forgot. The good news is that she liked the song so much she wanted to keep the CD. Very nice of her. When the next level German class begins in a couple of weeks, I'll have to follow up on the "dead man walking" question. I got an A in the class, fortunately.

Andrew said...

That's "idiomatic," by the way. I blame the faulty typing on the cat in my lap.