Hotel zur langen Dämmerung [English translation]

About a thousand miles you've already gone today

It's late, you're looking for a place to spend the night and find it

You're tired from all the things you've seen and didn't understand

Longing for a long rest

This hotel, the dim light in the narrow corridor

Appear suspicious to you as you look around

And as you unlock the door to your room, you realize

You've been here before, long time ago

Don't fall asleep at the Long Twilight Hotel, stay awake

For the breath of dead souls is piling up under this roof

And if you slept, it would eat its way into your brain and lungs so deeply

That you would leave this building only dying or dead

So you sit and wait on guard, but time just won't pass

And you feel like you could suddenly look right through the walls

You see a room just like yours, a boy is coming in

You're startled, you think this boy could be you:

Large feet, wide eyes, run away from home

His hair and pants way too short, as it is still customary in the countryside

Loving without fear everything that's new and strange around him

And you wonder if you ever were as young as he is

Don't fall asleep at the Long Twilight Hotel, stay awake

For the breath of dead souls is piling up under this roof

And if you slept, it would eat its way into your brain and lungs so deeply

That you would leave this building only dying or dead

In the room next door you see yourself as an old man

Lonely and bitter, ill and toothless

Shaking his skull, a Bible on his knees

His scrawny spider fingers excitedly leafing through it

Striking out whole sentences with the red pen in his hand

Writing hefty curses on the margin, whispering angrily

His fingers are bleeding, twitching in spasms

You give him but an hour and this fight will be over

Yes, don't fall asleep at the Long Twilight Hotel, stay awake

For the breath of dead souls is piling up under this roof

And if you slept, it would eat its way into your brain and lungs so deeply

That you would leave this building only dying or dead

The boy doesn't sleep either, takes his instrument and plays

He's writing something down, putting in rhymes what he feels

False notes, bad rhymes - it doesn't matter how well he's doing it

For he won't make it through this night but by writing, playing and singing

That makes him thirsty, he's opening the faucet which gushes out

Something that smells like something a dying man would sweat

And you hope that instead of drinking it, he will urinate in the sink

And he does and is spared from this poison for now

But don't fall asleep at the Long Twilight Hotel, stay awake

For the breath of dead souls is piling up under this roof

And if you slept, it would eat its way into your brain and lungs so deeply

That you would leave this building only dying or dead

Your watch is showing three, it stopped working hours ago

It's sleeping the long sleep, won't ever work again

Morning is breaking, boy, take your crumbs, you have to go

There's a park with a fountain, drink and wash yourself over there

You're gonna find others who are young like you

Who will explain the world to you, just listen to them

Then you will move on, see many things but will only understand a few

And after many years you might cross this threshold again

Then don't fall asleep at the Long Twilight Hotel, stay awake

For the breath of dead souls is piling up under this roof

And if you slept, it would eat its way into your brain and lungs so deeply

That you would leave this building only dying or dead

• Artist:Hannes Wader