Berlin

My talk, my songs
My hate and my luck
My day, my night, my before, my back
My sun and shadows, doubts that I have
About you and in me until the last day
Your streets, where I flee, stumble, and fall
Your warmth that I need, that I feel everywhere

Don't sell yourself
Berlin
You're not young
You age so quickly
You hunch too much
Carrying the burdens of the freer so heavily
They will leave
Seeing you die
Berlin
Beloved Berlin

Your corners and angles, your countless courtyards
Where the dirt and poverty bark for change
Your rush in the morning
Smells like hashish and beer
And snot falls casually on your streets
Your markets, the women, their calm, their cunning
And sometimes a joke that hits me in the gut
Don't sell yourself
Berlin
You're not young
You age so quickly
You hunch too much
Carrying the burdens of the freer so heavily
They will leave
Seeing you die
Berlin
Beloved Berlin

Your houses with corridors
Where one fights, where one laughs
Where, when it gets dark
New roommates are made

Your spaces where sleep comes reluctantly
Because the air to breathe is lacking
Where the grim reaper lives
But where you experience freedom in this big city
Even though it constricts and presses and has many walls
Don't sell yourself
Berlin
You're not young
You age so quickly
You hunch too much
Carrying the burdens of the freer so heavily
They will leave
Seeing you die
Berlin
Beloved Berlin

My talk, my songs
My hate and my luck
My day, my night, my before, my back
Your half-dead train station, where I stand among those
Who will go to better cities tomorrow morning
Where I want to leave you
Again and again, still
I'll make the leap
I'll make the leap yet