Wenn ich betrunken bin [English translation]

When I'm drunk you don't notice it right away

my fluency becomes smooth and my language florid

I don't start to annoy and to behave badly

I don't start to babble, to roister and to prattle

then my disturbance of equilibrium subside over time

the fog inside of me clears, I speak in angel's tongues

I find all those accurate words then, that I missed

I speak pulchritudinously like Dagmar Berghoff did in the Tagesschau-newscast

and what I say has tooth and nail, a head and a meaning

when I'm drunk.

When I'm drunk, I'm not asking for trouble

Instead of that my better me appears; it understands and pardons

then I am not insulting, I don't need to accost someone

I don't need to grab people or rough strangers up

my inner swine becomes an inner sow

the darkest abyss inside of me becomes the brightest Miss Abyss

the good quarries out of me, that had piled up inside of me

I offer the other cheek willingly when someone punches

then the wash-out, who bends my ear, still becomes a rake-off

when I'm drunk

when I'm drunk - you won't notice anything -

then I only see the little man with the accordeon

he plays so superlunarily beautiful, so pure and crystalline

I have to cry like a banshee and nearly lapse into a coma

and then I see a pack of mythical creatures around me

a dozen hairy guys singing with all their might

a sagging slimy pop song, yes indeed in front of me are standing

twelve yetis humming "I've seen Reinhold Messner ..."

Sometimes I believe, I see too much; sometimes I believe, that I'm nuts!

When I'm drunk

When I'm drunk I become educational

then I sit at the same table with Admiral van Snyder

with Winterbottom, Pommeroy, Sir Toby and it costs me

a smile to admit that my genital piercing is rusting

I admit all my insufficiencies in front of everyone:

"Yes, look at me, my soufflé has collapsed!"

Then I openly say what noone dares to say:

"I don't fancy sushi, yes I have dimpled skin

and I can't stand to read Grass" yes all of that is inside of me

when I'm drunk

When I'm drunk I become quiet

then I look inwards and there I see what I want

then I smile seemingly without reason and then I stand bolt upright

Earth's gravity at my feet and I feel the mercy

I don't need, in order to slump under the table ensouled,

to drink anything, because I'm naturally drunk

maybe like Obelix as a child with the magic potion

I fell into the pot and now that lasts a lifetime?

Sometimes I'm actually stone-cold sober on the inside

when I'm drunk

• Artist:Reinhard Mey