There are often disagreements about what is an appropriate translation--the lyrics above are from the Mark Blitzstein translation--Weill requested that Blitzstein translate TPO before he died, and Lenya worked with him to some degree. The show had been translated into english in 1933, but was not well received-- the Blitzstein lyrics are the ones that audiences embraced, and the ones that are widely known.

The words could flow more freely, and some of the German language isn't effective street vernacular if translated directly, so some of the imagery was changed a bit. Lines like" the army is just a pink tea" don't strike contemporary audiences as being particularly powerful-but some of the other lines, like "Johnny's missing, Jimmy is dead, andGeorge went crazy shooting, but blood is blood and red is red and the army is still recruiting" couldn't be better.

You pays your money, as the say. I'll have to check out the Robyn Archer version.