What does Wir Sind Wir mean?

[desiplaya4life]

listening to a song by paul van dyk, -wir sind vir


does any one know what the title means in english?

Tag um Tag, Jahr um Jahr,
Wenn ich durch diese Straßen geh',
Seh ich wie die Ruinen dieser Stadt
Wieder zu Häusern auferstehen.

Doch bleiben viele Fenster leer,
Für viele gab es keine Wiederkehr.
Und über das, was grad noch war,
Spricht man heute lieber gar nicht mehr.

Doch ich frag, ich frag mich wer wir sind.

Wir sind wir! Wir stehen hier!
Aufgeteilt, besiegt und doch,
Schließlich leben wir ja noch.

Wir sind wir! Wir stehen hier!
Das kanns noch nicht gewesen sein.
Keine Zeit zum Traurigsein.
Wir sind wir! Wir stehn' hier!
Wir sind wir!

Auferstanden aus Ruinen dachten wir,
Wir hätten einen Traum vollbracht.
40 Jahre zogen wir an einem Strang.
Aus Asche haben wir Gold gemacht.

Jetzt ist mal wieder alles anders
Und was vorher war, ist heute nichts mehr wert.
Jetzt können wir haben was wir wollen,
Aber wollten wir nicht eigentlich viel mehr?

Und ich frag, ich frag mich wo wir stehen.

Wir sind wir! Wir stehen hier!
Wieder Eins in einem Land,
Superreich und abgebrannt.

Wir sind wir! Wir stehen hier!
So schnell kriegt man uns nicht klein,
Keine Zeit zum bitter sein.
Wir sind wir! Wir stehn' hier!
Wir sind wir!

Wir sind Wir!
Aufgeteilt, besiegt und doch,
Schließlich gibt es uns ja immer noch.

Wir sind wir!
Und wir werden's überstehen,
Denn das Leben muss ja weitergehen.

Wir sind wir!
Das ist doch nur ein schlechter Lauf.
So schnell geben wir doch jetzt nicht auf.

 

[sash1]

PvD = best DJ ever

<--- doesn't speak german

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

Babelfish says "Wir sind wir" = "we are we"

 

[udonoogen]

we are we? that doesnt make any grammatical sense. this is my high school german, talking though. that was long ago, too

 

[theNEOone]

"we are we" is the literal translation. i would go with "we are us" but would be "wir sind uns" or something like that. who knows.....crazy germans.


=|

 

[desiplaya4life]

soooo.. any final answer?

this song is soo good. can anyone pull out any good lyric quote out of it.
this is beautiful.


i know he is talking about his country, germany after world war II and how U.S. replaced their economy and trade... basically how germans were transforming into america culture.

 

[Catalyst18]

yeah, this song's got alot of questioning motives/substance of culture etc.

Jetzt ist mal wieder alles anders
Und was vorher war, ist heute nichts mehr wert.
Jetzt können wir haben was wir wollen,
Aber wollten wir nicht eigentlich viel mehr?
=
Now once again, it's all different
And what happened previously, we do nothing with it,
Now, we can have what we want,
But did we not actually want more?

Und ich frag, ich frag mich wo wir stehen. = And I ask, I ask myself where we stand.

definitely a good song, and a great chance to try out some highschool german.

 

[alphatarget1]

Tag um Tag, Jahr um Jahr,
Wenn ich durch diese Straßen geh',
Seh ich wie die Ruinen dieser Stadt
Wieder zu Häusern auferstehen.

Day to Day, Year to Year
When I go through this street,
I look like the ruins of this city
Resurrecting to houses (umm this one i'm not sure)

Doch bleiben viele Fenster leer,
Für viele gab es keine Wiederkehr.
Und über das, was grad noch war,
Spricht man heute lieber gar nicht mehr.

Though a lot of windows stay empty
There are no return for a lot
And about that, what was just there
Today one would rather not speak anymore.

Doch ich frag, ich frag mich wer wir sind.

Though I ask, I ask myself who we are.

Wir sind wir! Wir stehen hier!
Aufgeteilt, besiegt und doch,
Schließlich leben wir ja noch.

We are we! we stand here!
Divided, defeated and though
Eventually we still live.


Don't want to translate the rest.

 

[jjzelinski]

wir sind wir is like saying "we are who we are", promoting self acceptance

 

[Perknose]

Originally posted by: jjzelinski
wir sind wir is like saying "we are who we are", promoting self acceptance

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA :laugh:

"Promoting self-acceptance", yeah, kumbaya. In the exact same way that Jimmy Hendrix was,

"I am what I am, thank God
Some people just don't understand
The HELL with them"

You know, promoting self acceptance, EXACTLY like that.

Trust me, these are Teutons, they're going a tad beyond promoting self-acceptance here.


As for the google-like translation in the post above that one, errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, all you need to know is that he translates "doch" as "though".

"Doch" is a hella interesting German word. It has no one word equivalent in English. It means, roughly, "Yes, no", and has a myriad of uses which would be hard to explain, in English. It does NOT, however, mean something so simple and prosaic as "though".

So, couldn't I explain it if need be?

Doch, doch.

Just saying.

 

[jjzelinski]

Originally posted by: Perknose

Originally posted by: jjzelinski
wir sind wir is like saying "we are who we are", promoting self acceptance

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA :laugh:

"Promoting self-acceptance", yeah, kumbaya. In the exact same way that Jimmy Hendrix was,

"I am what I am, thank God
Some people just don't understand
The HELL with them"

You know, promoting self acceptance, EXACTLY like that.

Trust me, these are Teutons, they're going a tad beyond promoting self-acceptance here.


As for the google-like translation in the post above that one, errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, all you need to know is that he translates "doch" as "though".

"Doch" is a hella interesting German word. It has no one word equivalent in English. It means, roughly, "Yes, no", and has a myriad of uses which would be hard to explain, in English. It does NOT, however, mean something so simple and prosaic as "though".

So, couldn't I explain it if need be?

Doch, doch.

Just saying.

Forgive me for not interpreting it as a call to arms for the aryan brotherhood

 

[Perknose]

Originally posted by: jjzelinski

Originally posted by: Perknose

Originally posted by: jjzelinski
wir sind wir is like saying "we are who we are", promoting self acceptance

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA :laugh:

"Promoting self-acceptance", yeah, kumbaya. In the exact same way that Jimmy Hendrix was,

"I am what I am, thank God
Some people just don't understand
The HELL with them"

You know, promoting self acceptance, EXACTLY like that.

Trust me, these are Teutons, they're going a tad beyond promoting self-acceptance here.


As for the google-like translation in the post above that one, errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, all you need to know is that he translates "doch" as "though".

"Doch" is a hella interesting German word. It has no one word equivalent in English. It means, roughly, "Yes, no", and has a myriad of uses which would be hard to explain, in English. It does NOT, however, mean something so simple and prosaic as "though".

So, couldn't I explain it if need be?

Doch, doch.

Just saying.

Forgive me for not interpreting it as a call to arms for the aryan brotherhood

In general, Germans are an intensely direct and confident people who simply don't adhere to or even understand our own upper-class British derived patina of self-effacing humor and public pretend modesty.

The Aryan brotherhood, on the other hand, have precious few Germans therein, and are the idiot spawn of American trailer-trash hate. They come from a place of intense insecurity and inferiority.

Not so the Germans, my friend, not so.

 

[PrinceofWands]

According to wiki.


On a deeper level the Germans have always had a very deep sense of nationalist identity. It was extremely important to the rise of the nazi party. I believe it was Hitlerjunge Quex that delved into it so well (but I always get that one and SA Mann Brandt confused). Anyway it was a good example of the times. I would guess that the current reunification and return to some semblence of power are causing a resurgance in the importance of being German - perhaps even renewed 'volkisch' feelings.

 

[chcarnage]

My translation:


Day after day, year after year,
when I walk through this streets,
I see how the ruins of this town
resurge to houses.

But many windows remain empty,
for many there was no return.
And about that, what just happened,
one rather doesn't talk about anymore.

But I ask, I ask myself who we are.

We are us! We stand here!
Divided, beaten and still,
After all, we live, yet.

We are us! We stand here!
This can't have been all.
No time to be sad.
We are us! We stand here!
We are us!

Resurged out of ruins, we thought
that we had achieved a dream.
Fourty Years we pulled together.
We made gold out of ashes.

Now, everything has changed again
and what was prior, is worth nothing anymore today.
Now we can have, what we want,
but haven't we wanted much more actually?

And I ask, I ask myself where we stand.

We are here! We stand here!
Again united in a land,
super rich and stone-broke.

We are us! We stand here!
One can't break us that fast,
no time to be bitter.
We are us! We stand here!
We are us!

We are us!
Divided, beaten and still,
After all, we still exist.

We are us!
And we will overcome it,
for life must go on.

We are us!
But, this is just a bad intermediate result (fig.).
We won't give up that fast now.


---

It's a song about the German self-conception and and it is in my opinion moronic to think it is nationalistic (this opinion is directed at the critics in Germany in the first stance). On the video clip you can see that it deals with the ups and downs Germany experienced since 1945. The isolation of the German Democratic Republic and the reunion are a dominant subject. In my opinion the video and the lyrics are synched really well and I find it moving even though I am not German. The picture arc from the bombed post-WWII Reichstag at the beginning to the renovated parliament (democracy) at the end is done well, too.

The texts in the video clip translate to:

[*]0:00 "danger of collapse" in front of the parliament building
[*]0:03 "to the German people" on the parliament building
[*]1:40 "Towns for Tomorrow" on the political video footage
[*]2:06 "Attention! You leave West Berlin now!" on the sign
[*]2:23 (he types the lyrics of the song)
[*]2:43 "Berlin as safe as West Germany" on the newspaper (together with the footage of the raisin bomber this is a hommage to what the US and UK have done for West Berlin)
[*]3:13 "End of the democratic sector of Big Berlin in a distance of 24 meters" on the sign on the East side of the Berlin Wall

 

[jjzelinski]

Originally posted by: Perknose

Originally posted by: jjzelinski

Originally posted by: Perknose

Originally posted by: jjzelinski
wir sind wir is like saying "we are who we are", promoting self acceptance

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA :laugh:

"Promoting self-acceptance", yeah, kumbaya. In the exact same way that Jimmy Hendrix was,

"I am what I am, thank God
Some people just don't understand
The HELL with them"

You know, promoting self acceptance, EXACTLY like that.

Trust me, these are Teutons, they're going a tad beyond promoting self-acceptance here.


As for the google-like translation in the post above that one, errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, all you need to know is that he translates "doch" as "though".

"Doch" is a hella interesting German word. It has no one word equivalent in English. It means, roughly, "Yes, no", and has a myriad of uses which would be hard to explain, in English. It does NOT, however, mean something so simple and prosaic as "though".

So, couldn't I explain it if need be?

Doch, doch.

Just saying.

Forgive me for not interpreting it as a call to arms for the aryan brotherhood

In general, Germans are an intensely direct and confident people who simply don't adhere to or even understand our own upper-class British derived patina of self-effacing humor and public pretend modesty.

The Aryan brotherhood, on the other hand, have precious few Germans therein, and are the idiot spawn of American trailer-trash hate. They come from a place of intense insecurity and inferiority.

Not so the Germans, my friend, not so.

[/]

I can't have this conversation with you, you plainly know what you are talking about whereas I (for the most part) don't.

Good day

 

[uberman]

For some insight into the German psyche and how the Nazis exploited their respect of authority, in particular, uniforms; view the silent film, "Der Hauptman Von Kupernick." It is a story of a man living on the streets who is shunned by all. He obtains a uniform and suddenly is treated as royalty. He even takes over an entire town with the power of his new uniform. The film is "The Captain of Kopernick." I had to struggle to obtain my copy. It's very famous in Germany, known as a classic. This movie is informative as well as a comedy.
Certainly the Nazi's capitolized on this with their use of uniforms to command respect for authority.

 

[chcarnage]

I don't share jjzelinski's and uberman's opinion on Germans. I think the average German is as self-confident and self-critical as are Brits and Americans. Sure, they like other kinds of humor but that doesn't make them sheeples.

And stories similar to Der Hauptmann von Köpenick can be found in other countries too, like the Danish "The Emperor's New Clothes" from H. C. Andersen or the Swiss "Clothes Make the Man" from Duerrenmatt.

 

[Triumph]

All of this doesn't change the fact that Germans love David Hasselhoff.