Torsten Schmidt [English translation]

You sit across from me – you sometimes do – on the bus.

And I can’t help but stare awhile … at you, and fuss.

‘Cause something about you “rings a bell” with me:

And it’s something … that’s frightening.

And what – for all these years – I’d held back,

Flares up in me and cries for payback!

You remind me so darn much of Torsten Schmidt:

You have his face – the crew cut fits.

Your hair is red; your nose is wide*;

The high forehead; the creepy stride …

And if, at times, it seems like three of us

– we two and Torsten Schmidt – are on the bus:

(He did me wrong, a ways back when)

You must be the same kind of arse …

as him.

It’s true I’ve never heard a word you’ve said …

(I already know

your voice makes me “see red”.)

That grating drivel rolls so easily

off the tip of your tongue …

(coated so.)

Then you say something dim-witted

That can make me really livid!

You remind me so darn much of Torsten Schmidt:

You have his face – the crew cut fits.

Your hair is red; your nose is wide*;

The high forehead; the creepy stride …

And if, at times, it seems like three of us

– we two and Torsten Schmidt – are on the bus:

(He did me wrong, a ways back when)

You must be the same kind of arse …

as him.

I have considered – for some days now –

Whether I should speak, and then how …

Or if I just give you a kick,

Get off the bus and “call it quits”

and say, “This is for you …

and Torsten Schmidt.”

*literally “long” (not “wide”)