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[materna!news@EDDIE.MIT.EDU (News Pseudo Account)]

To: unido!rec-music-gaffa
Path: materna!kkluge
From: kkluge@Materna.DE (Klaus Kluge)
Newsgroups: rec.music.gaffa
Subject: Re: The Garden and My Humble Ear
Message-ID: <kkluge.695549822@materna>
Date: 16 Jan 92 08:17:02 GMT
References: <AA15122@tessi> <1992Jan15.145121.1@wombat.newcastle.edu.au>
Sender: root@maternaMaterna.DE
Lines: 57



engjs@wombat.newcastle.EDU.AU (James Smith) wrote
> >>studied Classical Latin, may as well have been Greek).  I'm also
> >>working on possibilities for the last German line of "Coffee Homeground."
>
> Es smecht's wunderbar  -- It tastes good.
> Es steh' mir fr"oh -- I like it.
>
> Not sure of the spellings, but both are impure German.  We leaned both these
> phrases in high school.

Hmm, maybe it's time for me to step out of the shadows again. :)

Actually I didn't know about the German lines at the end of "Coffee
Homeground" since about a month ago, when I was adding lyrics to my
music database. Of course I immediately put on "Lionheart" to check
that out, especially as the last line was not complete in the lyrics
I had found in our archive.

They said (with a slight correction in the 2nd line):
   Noch ein Glas, mein Liebchen?     Another glass, my dear?
   Es schmeckt wunderbar!            It tastes wonderful!
   Und ...                           And ...

So, what did I hear in the third line? Not that much!
The first two lines I could understand, although KaTe pronounces and
stretches them in a very strange way which seem to indicate that she
never learned the German language (I don't blame her :).

When I was discussing that with Meredith, she suggested:
   Dann sterb' ich wohl.             Then I have to die.
and I agreed that it sounded very similar. ("sterben" = "to die")

Thinking a bit more about it, I don't consider it correct any more, because
it would include a chance in person from the poisener to the victim.

My current interpretation (you really can't decipher it) is:
   Dann staerk' dich wohl.           Invigorate yourself well.
with "staerk'" a short form of the verb "staerken" (to invigorate), and
the "ae" in the word a German "Umlaut" (the 'a' with two dots on the top).
"Dann" could also be "Und".

This would give the song a final push of black humour, to invigorate
someone with a glass of poison.

So, being German doesn't help that much here. It might even make it a bit
more difficult. But maybe another native can write about her/his impressions
about that line.

("Hey Leute, hoert euch das mal _genau_ an, und schreibt was dazu!!!")

Klaus
        _________________________________________________________
.    * |  "Tell me all the plans you have for the great beyond.  |  _ .  *
 .* .  |  Will you be physical again, or be a cosmic vagabond."  | (_)      .
     . |                               --- Happy Rhodes ---      | .     .
  o    |  Klaus "cosmic vagabond" Kluge       kkluge@Materna.DE  |    <==