Thine Way and Sex hath no Might

Thine Way

Wherefor forberghst thou thee?

Wherefor letst thou me read?

Wherefor worriest thou me?
Wherefor can I not breathe?

When I thee not finden can

Then might I no more see,

When I thee not feelen can

Then will I in thee forgo.

Thine way so wide,

No one who thee befrees,

Art thou ready?

No light too white,

No hell too hot,

That is the price!

Wherefor forwerst thou me?

Wherefor letst thou me wait?

Wherefor forlese I myself?

Wherefor should I fall under?

Sex hath no Might

Deep in thine veins,

Under thine hide,

Have I through the genes

Into naught a’showed…

Thou hast mine heart in the hand, it burns!

I wot I can myself free!

Thou hast mine heart in the hand, it burns!

Hearst thou me deep in thee scream?

Sex hath no might!

Sex hath no might!

Thou bleedest not enough for me…

Kiss me yet a last time!

Sex hath no might!

Sex hath no might!

Thou lithest not enough for me…

Trick me yet a last time!

Oversetting’s Notes

The songtexts given above are translated from the original German texts of the German band Oomph!, a NDH group from Wolfsburg, the same city as the lyricker Fallersleben. These two were chosen for their relative simplicity and content which was easily translatable into an English with vocabulary based on cognates. Meter and the use of cognates was maintained when possible.

Several words appear in the texts which have unusual or archaic meanings as are used in the songs. The following words listed in italic are given explanations:

forberghst is taken from a hypothetical conjunction of the prefix for with the obsolete word bergh, which being cognate with the German word “bergen” means “to give shelter, protect, preserve, deliver, or save”. The prefix for supplies the same connotation that the German “ver” gives in “verbergen”, bringing forbergh to mean “hide”.

read in this context derives its meaning from the older and more abstract usage of the verb “to read”, which falls more under the sense of “read between the lines”. It is cognate with the word “raten”, meaning “to guess”.

worriest is written in its seldom-used sense of thrashing something about by the neck, which often equates to strangling.

forwerst is a theoretical construction using the prefix for and the word “wer” had it been preserved in English as a verb or noun meaning “to confuse” or “disarray”. “Wer” would have the same root as “worse” and “war”.

forlese is an obsolete English word meaning “to lose entirely” or “to bereave”. It is the direct cognate of “verlieren”.

wot is the first-person singular conjugation for the archaic English verb “to wit”, meaning “to be aware of”, which lends a more specific meaning than a verb like “to know” and which is a direct cognate with the word “wissen”.

lithest is used in the sense of “to go, travel, be bereft of”, a meaning which was lost during the process of obsoletion. It is a direct cognate of “leiden” and means simply “to go” in its current obsolete usage.

All rights to the original lyrics of these songs go to the band Oomph! and I claim no ownership over them. This article only serves as an exercise in practicing translations into English using Anglo-Saxon roots.