Du hasst mich
For those who don’t recognize the line above, it means “you hate me” in German. I learned this after first hearing the song of the same name by Rammstein on the soundtrack for “The Matrix” some time ago. It then became my theme song at work when someone was giving me grief — I’d just crank up “Du Hast Mich” and let it do the speaking for me. Anyway, moving on to the point of this post…
…I’ve earned my fair share of enemies over the years. Honestly, I’m glad I know people that don’t like me, for it’s a diluted personality, indeed, that would never offend anyone. I’ve also heard it said that you can judge the character of a man by looking at those who count him as an enemy. So, it is with a certain sense of pride that I submit that most of the people who don’t like me are idiots.
The latest entry in the cavalcade of hate mail comes from someone who took offense at my rant against HTML mail written a couple years ago. This particular rant tends to send occasionally enjoyable spurts of vitriol my way on a relatively regular basis, so much so that I’m thinking of revising it and posting it here at neorants.
The following is the mail, as it arrived in my inbox moments ago (the sender’s information has been removed to protect the intellectually disadvantaged):
| From: <xxxxxxxx@xxxx.xxx>
To: <spam@sucks.com> Subject: HTML email has other uses beside advertising. You must have other personality traits besides arrogance |
Now, I particularly enjoyed this mail for two reasons:
- The sender managed to make two typographical errors in the space of two short sentences.
- The sender’s grasp of e-mail usage is so weak that he doesn’t understand that the message body goes in the content portion of the mail, not the subject line. Hint: This isn’t AIM, pally.
My response to the e-mail?
| From: “Neo” <spam@sucks.com>
To: <xxxxxxxx@xxxx.xxx> Subject: Re: HTML email has other uses beside advertising. You must have other personality traits besides arrogance I love you too. |
To answer his question: maybe I don’t.
theTom:
Awwww poor chap…better to have enemies than enenamas I always say! But yeah there are of course other uses for html email even those of us who know it if you cant say it in text then dont email it to me. Its just preference but we know this, they dont. But it seems lately some of your posta have come up about enemies or people not liking you etc etc……….one rule I live by at all times as best I can “Fawk em all and just be, be yourself at all times” and the rest or opinions dont really matter. But thats my two cents. Hope things look up for ya man.
March 21, 2003, 9:10 pmfu:
hahaha, I love reading your posts!
March 22, 2003, 4:09 pmmickey:
Actually, I’m pretty sure “Du hast mich” means “You have me”. “Hast” is a conjugate of “haben”, which means “to have”. The verb “hassen” means “to hate”. So, “You hate me” is actually the equivalent of “Du hasst mich”. …I just thought you would like to know.
July 27, 2003, 12:04 amNeo:
Odd. I dunno, when they sing the song in their English translated version they sing “you hate me” and Babelfish seems to translate it to hate as well.
July 27, 2003, 2:57 amTim:
Um, du hast mich doesn’t mean “you hate me”. It means “you have me”. It doesn’t seem like it fits, but if you listen to the whole song, it is a play on wedding vows and du hast is the beggining of “you have asked me and I have said nothing.” Here’s the whole song from http://www.herzeleid.com:
You
you have *
you have me
you have asked me
you have asked me and I have said nothing
Do you want, until death seperates you,
to be faithful to her for all days
No
Do you want, until death, which would seperate, **
to love her, even in bad days
No
* When Till is just saying “Du hast,” it sounds as if he could either be saying “Du hast” (you have) or “Du hasst” (you hate). This is probably to give the song a double meaning, even though the official lyrics say “Du hast.”
** There is another sort of double meaning here. If the line is read as “Tod der Scheide” it would be “until the death of the vagina” and not “until death, which would seperate” (”Tod, der scheide”). The whole song is a play on German wedding vows (Wollen Sie einander lieben und achten und die Treue halten bis dass der Tod euch scheidet? - Do you want to love and respect each other and to remain faithful, until death seperates you?). Instead of answering with “Ja,” Till says “Nein,” finally answering the question he said nothing to in the beginning.
Oh, and you hate me is “du hasst mich” fyi. Aufwiedersen.
September 19, 2003, 12:32 amNeo:
OK, I submit, then. :) I still contend that Rammstein’s own translation for us is hate, so my ignorance is justifiable. ;) In any case, I’ll correct it. :)
September 19, 2003, 7:15 amMurray:
Re : Rammsteins song ‘du hast’ The opening lines say basically “du hast mich gefragt und ….” That translates into english as “you have asked me and …” If it were to say “du hasst mich gefragt…” it wouldn’t make any sense - it would be saying “you hate asked me” Trust me :) Be blessed
September 23, 2003, 9:09 amNeo:
I gotcha — I just mean that Rammstein released an English version of the song, and in that one they say “you hate me” — maybe they figure we Americans wouldn’t dig a blatantly anti-love song, despite our high rate of divorce.
September 23, 2003, 3:31 pmSophie:
Both definitions are correct. The song was intended to have double meaning :D So it means both “you hate me” and “you have me” Though “you have me” fits better.
October 5, 2003, 8:00 amultrix:
Du hast mich = Thou hast me.
October 20, 2003, 10:10 amDu hasst mich = Thou hatest me.
TanksGrrl:
interesting. I had heard the song on the radio, but not speaking German, I had no idea what it meant. So I am here singing “du hast mich” having no fuckin clue what it means. I have to laugh at myself for my ignorance sometimes. LOL
c-yaz– Tank’sGrrl
November 7, 2003, 10:33 pmiAN:
don’t like . But think that might be able to accept something if there was no cause. That is why ‘d say that ‘m an idiot that thinks the song only has one meaning. But don’t care anyway. It is a song, and not an active nuklear bomb ,therefore, depleating of any other concern. only want to end this topic so can get to an interesting one. How old are ? Well am only fifteen, so can’t leave here. It is only a distraction, and will soon be replaced by another.
But, in the mean time, ‘ll go contemplate escape like a good li’l youngster…
“signature”
January 23, 2004, 6:06 pm“name here”
Katy:
HeHe HAHA :)
May 20, 2004, 7:38 pm