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| Traduzione inglese e note di jemflower da Lyrics Translate |
| DIE ALTEN LIEDER | THE OLD SONGS |
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| "Wo sind eure Lieder – | "Where are your songs - |
| Eure alten Lieder?" | Your old songs?" |
| Fragen die aus andern Ländern | We are often asked by those from other countries |
| Wenn man um Kamine sitzt | When we're sitting by the fireside |
| Mattgetanzt und leergesprochen | Having danced to exhaustion and said all that was to say |
| Und das High-Life-Spiel ausschwitzt! | Transpiring after the merriment! (1) |
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| Ja, wo sind die Lieder – | Yes, where are the songs - |
| Uns're alten Lieder? | Our old songs? |
| Nicht für'n Heller oder Batzen | Not for a farthing or a shilling (2) |
| Mag Feinsliebchen barfuss zieh'n | My darling will walk barefoot (3) |
| Und kein schriller Schrei nach Norden | And no shrill call for the north |
| Will aus einer Kehle flieh'n! | Will come out of our throat! (4) |
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| Tot sind uns're Lieder – | Dead are our songs - |
| Uns're alten Lieder! | Our old songs! |
| Lehrer haben sie zerbissen | Teacher have chewed them apart |
| Kurzbehoste sie verklampft – | Boys in shorts have played them with poor guitar accompanying - (5) |
| Braune Horden totgeschrien | Brown hordes have shouted them to death (6) |
| Stiefel in den Dreck gestampft! | Boots have tramped them into the mud! |
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| Tot sind uns're Lieder – | Dead are our songs - |
| Uns're alten Lieder! | Our old songs! |
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The record is from the late 60ies, meanwhile people changed their minds and some of our folksongs are returning.
(1) In the 60ies and 70ies the anglicism High-Life was used for having a party.
(2) Heller and Batzen are old coins, I used farthing and shilling to give a basic idea. Actually it's a title of a song, where the wanderer has spent both coins for beverages.
(3) Feinsliebchen du sollst mir nicht barfuß gehen (darling you should not walk barefoot), is another song.
(4) The shrill call comes from the geese flying north, also from a popular song "Wildgänse rauschen" (Wildgeese fly by) written in world war I.
(5) It means they were played by the members of the "Wandervogel" movement (I can't see what's wrong with it), Klampfe is a slangword for guitar
(6) Some Nazi organisations preferred brown shirts. Thus in the author's eyes, the songs were abused and sullied by them. That is the reason why noone wants to sing them any longer.