Die Befindlichkeit des Landes [English translation]

Across the scarfaced terrain

slowly disappearing

only phantom pain remains

Scarcely audible foul laughter seeps out

from the red Info Box

making some turn quietly in their graves

Nothing but future ruins

material for the next layer

Mela, Mela, Mela, Mela, Melancholia

Melancholia, mon cher,

Mela, Mela, Mela, Mela, Melancholia

floats over the new city

and over the land

Over the control centres

over the stubble fields of concrete

over the secret net of bunkers

refusing to be wiped out

Marlene go home!

also over the Marlene-Dietrich-Platz

The new temples are already cracked

future ruins

one day grass will also grow over the city

over its final layer

Mela, Mela, Mela, Mela, Melancholia

Melancholia, mon cher,

Mela, Mela, Mela, Mela, Melancholia

floats over the new city

and over the land

In the lascerated sky

flown to bits by the jets rehearsing

she hangs with widespread wings

sleepless and with frozen gaze

pointed at rubble

behind her the future piling up

slowly she flies higher and higher

at last surveys the entire land

What is the lay of the land?

What is the lay of the land?

What is the lay of the land?

What is the lay of the land?

• Artist:Einstürzende Neubauten
• Album:Silence is Sexy (2000)