California [English translation]

It's the third night now

When nobody has gone

Even the strength to curse has gone

Cold hands can be warmed up

Only by the clink of coins

Though you are twenty-five years old

Veins howl from hunger

Like pipes in an old house

And you were close to falling when

Your beloved walked past

He was the one not so long ago

He didn't recognise you

California, it's you - California!

That ballet, like it was yesterday, friends

He was the one who allowed you to try for the first time

It was downhill after that, he haunts from a mirror today

Brought out from underneath lipstick

A foreign face, not yours

Kneeling among the crumbs of dreams

You cried:

It wasn't supposed to be like this!

The lamp has gone

In this darkness you didn't know

If it were blood or tears that were flowing

California, it's you - California!

Night from day differs in that you can't see the ceiling

Don't even ask about feelings

When you walk past lines of nameless bodies

It doesn't bother you, it's as if nothing was there

Hunger remains, only hunger remains...

Hunger has eaten longing

Hunger has even killed embarrassment

You still remember, he'd say:

California - don't be afraid!

The body would lose feeling

Dreams would lose colour

You remember one thing, he'd say:

California - don't be afraid!

He passed by again

Something broke in you for the last time

Then the crowds around you gathered

He lay there quietly

And nobody saw

What you held in your hands

And nobody saw

How you went the other way...

He'd say: don't fear

Don't fear anything! California!