Hassan vs Teufel [English translation]

Hassan couldn’t do anything

except screw things up at school.

The teachers hated him

and called him the class fool,1

who chews gum during class,

who punches his name into the blackboard

with a knife, and who sells drugs

‘cause he has no faith in the future.

He says that life’s a bitch,

that’s why he smokes and snorts.

At 13, a junkie; by 15, he dealt; 2

no juvie in the world could straighten him out; 3

he shut down. 4

His father threatens and beats him,

screams at him, and caught him

for the hundred and tenth time with a scale and the poison. The whole neighborhood told stories about him;

he was the devil in person and was hooked on heroin.

After the tenth treatment

and the hundredth court proceeding,

he still beat up old people in the subways.5

Today his name is in bold print in the papers 6

Hassan kicked in the face of a little boy.

Hook x 2:

Look, the devil puts horns on us.

We’re walking through this world with blindfolds on,

which doesn’t change a thing about our life story.

We’re running out of steam.

Which judge should protect us from jail?

Besides Mama, nobody cares. 7

Look, at 17, he went in;

and at 20, he came out;

yeah, of course on parole,

but Hassan didn’t care.

And now they’re divorced ‘cause his father was sick of it,

he moved back to Bonn and left Mom alone with him,

and just a week later, the police came knocking at night.

It dealt, once again, with drugs and 100 street fights.

Since that day, he’s been back on the run;

had no desire to turn himself in,

and shot himself up 8

from his own stash that he sells.

No one discouraged him

‘cause they didn’t dare (tell him something different).

He picked up the phone and cussed out his mother,

then spit on the receiver and desperately yelled: 9

“it’s your damned fault.”

Completely doped, he went to the bank with a gun. 10

He wanted to take the money

and run off to another country;

which, during the escape, a bullet hit him in his back,

which wasn’t planned (boom).

Hook x 2:

Look, the devil puts horns on us.

We’re walking through this world with blindfolds on,

which doesn’t change a thing about our life story.

We’re running out of steam.

Which judge should protect us from jail?

Besides Mama, nobody cares.

1. Straight translation: Pausenclown = class clown. 2. verticken = to deal drugs. 3. Juvie = slang term for Juvenile Detention Center (where juveniles spend their time in jail). Erziehen = to raise, to bring up, to educate, to train, to discipline. This context means “to straighten (someone) out.”4. Er war dicht = lit. he “sealed” up, he clammed up, he didn’t say anything. “He shut down” means “to shut himself down,” “to turn himself off.”5. Straight translation: Straßenbahn = streetcar. “Subway” for “U-Bahn” is a more common saying.6. “The papers” is a common English reference to “newspapers.” 7. Straight translation: wünscht uns keiner was = no one wishes us anything.8. verpasste sich einen Schuss = (bought/got) himself a shot (of heroin). If someone “shoots up,” they’re injecting themselves with a drug. 9. bespuckte = spat; however, the past tense of “spit” is rarely used in every day conversation. Hörer = telephone receiver (the piece of equipment you’re listening through on the telephone). 10. Straight translation: waffen = weapon; however, it usually refers to a gun.