German phrase, translation, please?

Subject: German phrase, translation, please?
From: Barbara
Date: 29 Mar 99 - 02:19 PM

There's a current hit song (West Coast US) called "Pretty Fly For a White Guy" by a group called the Offspring, and the song begins with this four word phrase that I can't understand, but it sounds like German to me.
The band uses it to count in the song, but I don't hear any numbers in it. It sounds (this is rough) something like
Unda (unter?)gleeten (fleiten?)daten bogen (mogen?)
My daughter says it's nonsense, (it's her CD) but I'm pretty sure it's a language; I just don't recognize it.
Anyone care to stray this far off the folk path, help would be appreciated.
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: German phrase, translation, please?
From: SeanM
Date: 29 Mar 99 - 08:45 PM

Not sure of the translation, but from a misspent youth I can tell you that it's a sample of a Def Leppard song, 'Rock of Ages'

But I'm feeling MUCH better now...

M

Subject: RE: German phrase, translation, please?
From: Wolfgang
Date: 01 Apr 99 - 06:07 AM

Barbara, I've listened to an audio clip available on the web and I do not recognise it as German (a little doubt remaining).

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: German phrase, translation, please?
From: katlaughing
Date: 01 Apr 99 - 01:09 PM

Barbara:

Here ya go. Found them at a Def Leppard site. Maybe Wolfgang can tell us if it means anything. My high school german is really rusty!

ROCK OF AGES

Gunter glieben glauchen globen

Alright/ I got something to say/ It's better to burn out than fade away/ All right/ Gonna start a fire/

Rise up, gather round/ Rock this place to the ground/ Burn it up let's go for broke/ Watch the night go up in smoke/

Rock on, rock on / Drive me crazier, no serenade / No fire brigade, just pyromania/

What do you want? What do you want? / I want rock'n'roll, yes I do / Long live rock'n'roll /

Oh let's go, let's strike a light / We're gonna blow like dynamite / I don't care if it takes all night / Gonna set this town alight, come on /

What do you want? What do you want? / I want rock'n'roll, allright / Long live rock'n'roll /

Rock of ages, rock of ages / Still rollin', keep a-rollin' / Rock of ages, rock of ages / Still rollin', rock 'n' rollin' / We got the power, got the glory / Just say you need it and if you need it / Say yeah /

Now listen to me / I'm burnin', burnin', I got the fever / I know for sure, there ain't no cure / So feel it, don't fight it, go with the flow / Gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme one more for the road /

What do you want? What do you want? / I want rock'n'roll, you betcha / Long live rock'n'roll /

Rock of ages, rock of ages / Still rollin', keep a-rollin' / Rock of ages, rock of ages / Still rollin', rock 'n' rollin' / We got the power, got the glory / Just say you need it and if you need it / Say yeah, say yeah /

We're gonna burn this damn place down / Down to the ground /

Subject: RE: German phrase, translation, please?
From: Roger in Baltimore
Date: 01 Apr 99 - 01:36 PM

Katlaughing,

Thanks for the lyric post. I often don't realize how deep and poignant rock lyrics can be, because they sing them so loud and the drums and guitar sometimes still drown them out.

But to see them laid out in black and white (on my browser) I understand how people are attracted to lyrics that express a love of community and a passion for music the way Def Leppard has done in this song.

Roger in Baltimore

Subject: RE: German phrase, translation, please?
From: Uilleand
Date: 01 Apr 99 - 03:03 PM

None of these are actual German words. It looks like they were just meant to look an sound like German.

Subject: RE: German phrase, translation, please?
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 01 Apr 99 - 06:40 PM

Rough translation: uh-ONE, uh-Two, uh-THREE, uh-FOUR...??

Grandpa Paton, who has never heard 'em.

Subject: RE: German phrase, translation, please?
From: catspaw49
Date: 01 Apr 99 - 08:58 PM

Nice try Sandy...but in the context of the song I could understand. My German is not good, but I believe it's a Dutch variant and not German. With the possible exception of the third word...may be a typo kat?...The rest of it is all in this stupid little dictionary thingy that also lists slang and variants. Taking the most (and best) shot at the third word, I show 2 separate meanings and I'll use the first. The phrase looks to be.... There's too many friggin' ginger snaps in the sauerbraten gravy....or something close to it.

I do agree completely with the Big RiB...truly poignant words.

catspaw

Subject: RE: German phrase, translation, please?
From: Margo
Date: 02 Apr 99 - 11:27 AM

Robbie Burns it ain't!

Subject: RE: German phrase, translation, please?
From: Will Bakker
Date: 02 Apr 99 - 02:50 PM

Definitely not Dutch!

Subject: RE: German phrase, translation, please?
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 Apr 99 - 03:07 PM

Thanks, Roger in B, I know what you mean about rock lyrics.

Catspaw: no typo, though I know I am known for them, too impatient to go back and change! If there is a typo it is from their website, as I cut and pasted it to the 'Cat, just as they had it.

kat

Subject: RE: German phrase, translation, please?
From: catspaw49
Date: 02 Apr 99 - 04:44 PM

Well, if there is no typo than the meaning is much clearer. The phrase should read:

"My Bratwurst is made of groundhog fat and a sock."

That should wrap things up!

catspaw

Subject: RE: German phrase, translation, please?
From: Walt K
Date: 03 Apr 99 - 12:29 AM

The last word is a real German word (perhaps by coincidence). It is one of two plurals of the noun "globe", i.e. it translates "globes": der Globus, die Globen oder die Globusse. Was the guy with the friggin' ginger in the saurbratten serious?

Subject: RE: German phrase, translation, please?
From: catspaw49
Date: 03 Apr 99 - 12:56 AM

Thanks a lot for pointing out my gross ignorance. Now it makes even more sense!!! The phrase is:

"My wife's ass-cheeks are shaped like a globe." (Karen's going to be overjoyed with this!)

catspaw

Subject: RE: German phrase, translation, please?
From: catspaw49
Date: 03 Apr 99 - 11:11 AM

Oops...My mistake again...Sorry!!!

I should have checked the gender and then I wouldn't have had all these problems. Obvious that it's der globus and like many words in German, matches closely to the English; in this case, glo--bus. Now the translation is quick and easy:

"Manfred roasted his wienie above the burning Microbus."

Hope I got it this time...What do you think Walt???

catspaw

Subject: RE: German phrase, translation, please?
From: catspaw49
Date: 03 Apr 99 - 08:16 PM

Dammit...Not Again!!! I was using my German dictionary instead of my variant thingy. I am a dumb suhbitch. Lessee', now it goes:

"That asshole with the Framus guitar, smashed my rosewood kazoo."

Definitely better...also correct I believe.

catspaw

Subject: RE: German phrase, translation, please?
From: catspaw49
Date: 04 Apr 99 - 01:56 PM

It now being Easter, the spirit of the day and all inspired me to look with pride at my translation ......and realize that once again I was incorrect. Several words were on some bulbs and things we got from Holland and as we were checking the tulip package, I did a quick translation and realized that I'd messed up on the first word as I had been worrying so much about the third. So, for you Walt, the phrase should read:

"There's a tulip bulb stuck in my condom."

catspaw

Subject: RE: German phrase, translation, please?
From: Ferrara
Date: 04 Apr 99 - 11:26 PM

It's people like you who make people like me waste half my day reading every damn word of every damn thread just out of fear of missing something that will have me sitting here laughing my butt off (but never in the spots where a little needs to come off) at the things you idiots write, like the idiot I obviously am, or else I wouldn't be reading threads all day instead of preparing meals and making sure my kid gets through eleventh grade and all.

Keep up the good work!

Subject: RE: German phrase, translation, please?
From: catspaw49
Date: 04 Apr 99 - 11:38 PM

The absolutely, positively, funniest thing in this thread is from poor Walt who has only posted twice in over a year. When he asked "Is that guy serious?" I laughed for 10 minutes...Karen thought I was gonna' die. Now I can let this sucker go. Thanks Ferrara!

catspaw

Subject: RE: German phrase, translation, please?
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 04 Apr 99 - 11:44 PM

Gosh, paw, I thought you were serious. Maybe you shouldn't let go of it for a while. I really think you're on a roll, and you haven't explained "flunderblunken" yet.

Subject: RE: German phrase, translation, please?
From: catspaw49
Date: 04 Apr 99 - 11:46 PM

No, but I did try to help with El Fego!!!

catspaw

Subject: RE: German phrase, translation, please?
From: mountain tyme
Date: 05 Apr 99 - 02:45 AM

Not German nor Dutch, but a play on words in Africanner, where Glauchen is a musical sound of glee, made with a smile, through the nose, with lips tightly pursed. The phrase is a reflection of how Gunter simply glows with delerium as he travels the globe (in his new Hummer) whilst playing his glorious kazoo to the delight of all. Or is it with delight to the delerium of all. 49 cats was almost right at least a few times.

Subject: RE: German phrase, translation, please?
From: keberoxu
Date: 01 Jan 17 - 06:23 PM

Yes, this is the waking up of an old thread, with some VERY funny posts from Spaw. I woke it up to ask for help with a lyric/poem.

Not traditional song, but a stanza from a poem by Friedrich Rückert, from the 19th century. That said, the poem is written very much in a "volksthümlich" fashion, to sound like something that anyone could understand. It has been set to music by Carl Loewe.

What follows is only the fourth and final stanza. Loewe set the first three stanzas to music, dropping the fourth. When people undertake to translate the song lyrics, therefore, from German to English, nobody bothers with Rückert's fourth stanza as it is missing from the song.

Yes, I have tried using my dictionary and I have worked with the online translators, and I'm still having trouble understanding. Those of you who are fluent in German will probably have a big laugh at my expense because, from the little I can grasp, this stanza seems to be about two mischievous young ladies playing a practical joke upon a potential suitor, and prunes are involved. But I would still like to know what "verhotzelnd" means. Here goes.

Verse 4.
Warum sind die Mamsellchen
Geblieben unvermählt?
Sie haben doch Prünellchen
So manchen Herbst geschält.
Die Pfläumchen brieten brotzelnd
Sie schrumpften ein verhotzelnd,
Daß einem Junggesellchen
Die Lust um anzubeißen fehlt.

from "Die Pfarrjüngferchen",
page 637,
Erinnerungen aus den Kinderjahren eines Dorfamtmannsohns, 1829
Zweiter Theil,
Gesammelte Gedichte von Friedrich Rückert.
Frankfurt am Main: Druck und Verlag von Johann David Sauerländer, 1843.

By the way, for those of you who don't like being left in the dark:
the poem title, I would translate as "The Pastor's Two Young Ladies [daughters],"
and it comes from poems written by Rückert in 1829 with the poet's heading:
"Memories from the Childhood of a Town Magistrate's Son."

Subject: RE: German phrase, translation, please?
From: Thompson
Date: 01 Jan 17 - 07:04 PM

This is absolute codswallop. It is obvious that this is a kind of pig-Latin version of German, and you need to swap some of the letters. Then you have:

Gunter loves the laughing [or possibly the leeks] of globes

This was written a time of terrible nuclear tension, when the world - the globe - was in constant peril. For Gunter - obviously a Prussian communist - to love the laughing of globes, the world - and other worlds - must be safe, saved by rock 'n' roll. It's just a matter of applying simple logic.

Rock historians will not that the same code phrase occurs in Pretty Fly for a White Guy.

Subject: RE: German phrase, translation, please?
From: GUEST,Susanne (skw) sans cookie
Date: 01 Jan 17 - 07:58 PM

Hi, and a happy new year to all of you!

The verse keberoxu is asking for means roughly:

Why are the maidens not married yet at all?
After all, they've skinned prunes for many a fall
The prunes they were cooked, they shrivelled and they shrank
So much that any bachelor was put off taking a bite

'Verhotzelnd' would mean 'shrivelling', though the verb fitted better here. And 'anbeißen' carries a double meaning - literally 'take a bite' but also 'take the plunge' to propose.

Subject: RE: German phrase, translation, please?
From: keberoxu
Date: 01 Jan 17 - 10:07 PM

Susanne, thank you so much. Your opinions are a big help!

Is it just me, or does it seem that Herr Pfarrer's two daughters are doing something on purpose in order to discourage any young bachelor from proposing to them? You can see how slow I am about this...thanks again.

Subject: RE: German phrase, translation, please?
From: GUEST,SB
Date: 01 Jan 17 - 10:15 PM

One link is:

http://ondemand-mp3.dradio.de/file/dradio/2016/12/31/songhunters_lange_nacht_ueber_amerikanische_volksmusik_dlf_20161231_2305_2a762633.mp3

Subject: RE: German phrase, translation, please?
From: GUEST,Susanne (skw) sans cookie
Date: 02 Jan 17 - 03:01 AM

keberoxu, the verse may be even more ambiguous than I thought. 'Prunes' could refer to the ladies themselves, shrivelling up as they get older while life (and love) passes them by. For instance, there is an old-fashioned term for an old woman, shrivelled up with age and hard work, growing ever smaller: She used to be called a "Hutzelweib".

I've had a quick look at the rest of the poem, and it makes sense. The earlier verses are all about the girls' abilities and how they display them. I wouldn't think he means to convey that they are actively striving to stay single but rather, that they use the wrong strategies to attract suitors - displaying their housewifely qualities and forgetting to turn on the charm, perhaps.

Incidentally, the page where I read the poem tells me that the parson's daughters from Rückert's hometown did indeed never marry!

Subject: RE: German phrase, translation, please?
From: Long Firm Freddie
Date: 02 Jan 17 - 03:37 AM

If you take the G off the front of the last three words of the phrase it becomes leben lieben lachen, which translates from the German (according to t'internet) as live, love, laugh. Presumably the G was added to make the phrase alliterative with Gunter.

LFF

Subject: RE: German phrase, translation, please?
From: Helen
Date: 02 Jan 17 - 02:40 PM

Thanks keberoxu,

It makes me miss Spaw's posts so much. What a guy!

Helen

An explanation of the phrase used by Def Leppard

What's the deal with that weird German phrase at the beginning of Def Leppard's "Rock of Ages"?

"It's meaningless drivel, basically," Def Leppard lead singer Joe Elliott told me, after we discussed the effectiveness of cabbage-soup diets. The drivel in question–which Elliott spells "Gunter gleben glousen globen"–was uttered by the producer of their Pyromania record, Mutt Lange (later to be Shania Twain's husband). The band was going stir crazy in the studio and badly needed some comic relief (not realizing that future albums with Lange would take years instead of months). So on a skeletal version of the "Rock of Ages" track, when Lange was counting off mid-song to indicate where guitar fills should come in, he started off with the tradional "1, 2, 3, 4," progressed to rhythmically listing Indian foods such as papadum, and ended up making up his own quasi-Teutonic language. "We thought it was so funny, we lifted it from the middle of the song," Elliott said. (The Offspring agreed in 1998, borrowing it for the intro of "Pretty Fly (For a White Guy).") "We were actually accosted by a German once who said it meant 'running through the forest, silently'," Elliott reported. "It doesn't–but auf wiedersehen, mate!"

(Excerpted from the 2006 book Is Tiny Dancer Really Elton's Little John?: Music's Most Enduring Mysteries, Myths, and Rumors Revealed, published by Three Rivers Press, written by Gavin Edwards.)

Subject: RE: German phrase, translation, please?
From: GUEST,.gargoyel
Date: 02 Jan 17 - 05:32 PM

What lovely reflections upon the wisdom of:

Spaw and Kat

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

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