Lili Marleen, the only English version that doesn't suck.

Intro

"Motherfucker, there's no decent English version of Lili Marleen. Waht the fuck is this, 'create a world for two', where do these shithead Beatties get the fucking nerve! Next it's going to be about gender equality and the wage goop."
"There must be one on Trilema, I remember reading it."

* looks *

"Nope, no such thing."
"Oh, you know what I bet it was ? You just did it with me, I remember our going through it, but I think you never actually wrote it down."
"Oh yeah !?"
"Yeah, remember, at the *** after *** you held me in your lap and I had to tell you what Tor is and then you explained the beta-ss thing and..."
"Oh, yeah."
"And then we *** so it never got written out properly."

She's right, it never got written out properly. And so now I don't have it, which means I have to re-do it. But anyway, whatever, I'm redoing it. Here it is :

By the soldiers' quarters, right besides the gateⁱ
Stood once a lantern
And in front she'd wait.
That's what weⁱⁱ want, to meet againⁱⁱⁱ
Under that lantern, let us stand
Like once Lili Marleen
Like once Lili Marleen

Our twinning shadows shone as one without^iv
That we loved each other
You could tell right out
Let every body see quite well,
That looks within that lantern's spell
Once was Lili Marleen
Once was Lili Marleen

Clearly^v rung the bugle, calling out Curfew
"Three days that can cost you" --
"I'll be right there with you."
We said our burning goodbyes then,
But how I'd rather they were damned
For you, Lili Marleen
For you, Lili Marleen

Your steps, how she knows them, that pretty old gang^vi,
All night long it burns there,
But me it long forgot.
Should harsh misfortune strike at me,
Who will then stand, guarding the light
With you, Lili Marleen
With you, Lili Marleen

From the realm of silence, from the reasoned ground^vii,
Raise me up once more, dreams in your loving mouth^viii
When the final mists will drain,
Will I by that old lantern stand ?
With you, Lili Marleen
With you, Lili Marleen

Now there, that's an English Lili Marleen that doesn't suck.

It blows.

What the fuck did you think it was ?!

1. Neverfucking mind that they told you Kaserne is "barracks" in the dictionary. Sure it is, in the dictionary, but what matters here is the jockstrap scent, okay ? It's supposed to faintly connote prostitution, and precariousness, and... oh what's the use! What matters here is that "right besides the gate" flows, syllabically, exactly like "von dem grossen Tor", not whether it is or it is not fucking large, nevermind the easy irrelevancy, focus on the important. In all the chaos and confusion, this man nevertheless loved a woman ; a woman he never got to know so well. [↩]
2. We, you understand. Not he and she. Him and you. [↩]
3. How the fuck could anyone miss out on the again-Marleen match is beyond fucking comprehension, outside of wilful stupidity there's no explaining it. The whole fucking point of the name is nostalgia, good god, vat-things without a history that understand nothing! [↩]
4. Yes ?

   It's not fucking "our two shadows looked like one". Beiden is both, and Uns're beiden is not fucking "our two", alright ?! It's "our both", which means nothing in English, but our twinning does mean, and works splendidly, at that. Because English works. If you work it.

   It works better than fucking German, at that, because yes sah'n is to see, but to see in the active, was seen, it emitted the fact of sight. Shone is stupendously good for this purpose, specifically because of the contrast with the concept of shadow. See ?

   What do you see, when you see ? Is it what you look to see or what I show you to see ? [↩]

5. Schon is a bitch in German, one of the worst. [↩]
6. See also this discussion. And yes, the implication contemplated here is very much in the vein of "When you sent her to my car." ; try and understand that for a large stretch in both space and time, a stretch easy to confuse with civilisation altogether, just about the only way a young filly got initiated was with an older woman there holding her up, much like for baptism. So yes, she the gangway, the scant old woman blessing their union, such as little they had muchly they cherished.

   Fucking "lovely way you walk" motherfucker on a stick. I need a spittoon. [↩]

7. Ye ken ? [↩]
8. Yes, very much oral sex. Because while she does it you close your eyes, yes ? And you dream away, yes ? [↩]