du hast

"Du hast" is the title of a song by the German heavy metal group Rammstein. The title is commonly interpreted as "You Hate", but is really a long play on words: du hast means "you have", while du hat, pronounced similarly (a sharper "s"), means "you hate". As an aside, it is interesting to note that a similar pun would have been possible in Early Modern English using thou, the now-obsolete cognate of German du. "You have" would be thou hast, while "you hate" would be thou hatest. The pun is illustrated by a comparison of the German version, a literal English translation, and the band's non-literal English version of the song.

idth="25%"\|German lyrics	width="25%"\|Literal English translation	width="25%"\|The band's non-literal English version
\|\|\|
u	You	You
u hast	You have	You hate
u hast mich	You have me	You hate me
u hast mich gefragt	You have asked me	You hate me to say
u hast mich gefragt und ich hab nichts gesagt	You have asked me and I have said nothing	You hate me to say and I did not obey
\|\|\|
illst du bis der Tod euch scheidet	Will you until death does you part	Will you until death does sever
reu ihr sein fr alle Tage	Be faithful to her for all days	Be upright to her forever
\|\|\|
ein	No	Never
\|\|\|
illst du bis zum Tod, der scheide	Will you until death which would separate*	Will you 'til death be her rider
ie lieben auch in schlechten Tagen	Love her also in bad days	Her lover too, to stay inside her
\|\|\|
ein	No	Never

(*) Tod, der scheide (without capital and with a comma) means death which would separate, whereas Tod der Scheide (with a capital S and without comma) means death of the vagina. The whole song is a play on German wedding vows (Wollt Ihr einander lieben und achten und die Treue halten, bis da der Tod euch scheide? - Do you want to love and respect each other and to remain faithful, until death separates you?). Instead of answering with "Ja" (yes), the singer says "Nein" (no) , finally answering the question he said "nothing" to in the beginning. "Du hast" was part of the soundtrack for the 1999 feature film The Matrix. It is from the album Sehnsucht.

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