Was du nicht sagst [English translation]

[Verse 1]

You say,1 you need time for you

Then you call, because you miss me

You don’t say!2

Sometimes you hang on3 me

(If) I hang on you it’s too much (for) you

You don’t say!

[Pre-Chorus]

I know you well, not well enough

In order to understand your silence

And you, and you, you stay silent

[Chorus]

What you don’t say

What you don’t say I can’t hear

I ask: “all right?”4

And you go:5 “yes yes!”

But what you don’t say

What you don’t say I can’t hear

Tell me what’s the matter6

I’d happily be there for you

I’d happily be there for you

[Verse 2]

With your faults, your quirks

I want you just as you are7

It’s clear to me, what that means

I’d happily be (the one) who always knows

How you are,8 even when you keep quiet9

You don’t make it easy for me

[Pre-Chorus]

I find us10 good, much too good

To accept11 your silence

And you, and you, you stay silent

[Chorus]

What you don’t say

What you don’t say I can’t hear

I ask: “all right?”

And you go: “yes yes!”

But what you don’t say

What you don’t say I can’t hear

Tell me what’s the matter

I’d happily be there for you

I’d happily be there for you

[Bridge]

And I don’t know, I don’t know

What you need, what you think, what you want, what you feel, but

Don’t carry the pain, the pain alone

And I don’t know, I don’t know

What you need, what you think, what you want, what you feel, but

Don’t carry the pain alone

It will be easier if we share it

[Chorus]

What you don’t say I can’t hear

I ask: “all right?”

And you go: “yes yes!”

But what you don’t say

What you don’t say I can’t hear

Tell me what’s the matter

I’d happily be there for you

I’d happily be there for you

1. literally “you mean/think/fancy”2. as in the phrase “no kidding!” or “duh”, literally “what you don’t say”. There’s a play on the meanings of this phrase in this song, during the verses it is used in the “you don’t say” sense, but in the chorus the literal meaning is used, saying “what you don’t say I can’t hear” as in “I can’t hear what you don’t say / if you don’t say it I can’t hear it”3. or “cling to”4. literally “all clear”5. literally “like” as n “and you’re like:”6. literally “tell me what you have”7. literally “I want you so, so like you are”8. literally “how it goes with you”9. ”schweigen” is the verb for being quiet10. as in “our relationship”11. or “to put up with”