Wir sind Helden - Denkmal

Title: Denkmal
Artist: Wir sind Helden
Album: Die Reklamation
Year: 2003

The singer sings to their significant other about how some other people made a monument to their love. The singer is convinced that this will ruin their love and, thus, hatches a plan to deface and destroy the monument. The song begins with the singer receiving a text message from one of her "partners-in-crime."

Deutsch "Denkmal"

English "Monument"

gesprochener Teil: *1 wir haben eine SMS-Kurznachricht für Sie. Die Nachricht lautet: "Mission eins erfüllt  Ausrufezeichen Plakate acht Komma Verhaftungen null Punkt Mission zwei folgt Punkt Hol den Vorschlaghammer" Strophe 1: komm mal^ ans Fenster komm her zu mir siehst du da drüben gleich da hinter'm Wellblechzaun? *2 da drüben auf dem Platz vor Aldi haben sie unser Abbild.. ..in Stein gehauen Strophe 2: komm auf die Straße komm her zu mir überall Blumen und Girlanden halb zerknüllt Sieht so aus als hätten die unser Denkmal heute Nacht schon ohne uns enthüllt Refrain: hol den Vorschlaghammer sie haben uns ein Denkmal gebaut und jeder Vollidiot weiß dass das die Liebe versaut ich werd die schlechtesten... *3 ...Sprayer dieser Stadt engagieren *5 die sollen nachts noch^.. ...die Trümmer..  ..mit Parolen beschmieren Strophe 3: komm auf die Beine komm her zu mir es wird bald hell und wir haben nicht ewig Zeit wenn uns jetzt hier wer erwischt sind wir für immer vereint *4 in Beton und Seligkeit (Refrain) siehst du die Inschrift da unten bei den Schuhen? da steht in goldener Schrift *5 wir sollen in Ewigkeit ruhen (Refrain)

spoken Part: we have a text message for yov. The message says: “Mission 1 complete Exclamation point Posters 8 comma arrests 0 period mission 2 will follow period get the sledge hammer" Verse 1: come over to the window come over to me do you see over there right behind the sheet metal fence? over there in the lot in front of Aldi they’ve sculpted our image.. ..in stone Verse 2: come out in the street come over to me flowers and garlands everywhere *6 half crumpled looks like they already unveiled our monument.. ..last night without us Chorus: get the sledge hammer they built us a monument and every moron knows that that ruins love I’ll enlist the help of the worst.. ..graffiti vandals in this city by night they’ll smear.. ..the rubble.. ..with slogans Verse 3: get up on your feet come over to me it’ll get light soon and we don’t have much time if someone catches us here we’ll be united forever in concrete and salvation (Chorus) do you see the inscription down there by the shoes? in says there in golden letters we’ll rest in peace forever (Chorus)

*1 
SMS stands for “short message service,” an old text message service in Europe. Even though messaging apps like WhatsApp have largely replaced the SMS in Germany, any kind of short text message can still be referred to as “eine SMS.” 

If you add some vowels to the acronym, you get the German verb “simsen” = “to text”. 

*2 
Aldi is a leading discount grocery chain that is very widespread in Europe, but especially Germany, where it started. It's the sort of store that every city in Germany seems to have because the thrifty Germans love cheap groceries. There might be one in your US city soon too.

*3 
FALSE FRIENDS: Sprayer
EN “sprayer” = usually a device that sprays pesticides, fertilizer or paint; usually not a person doing the spraying
DE “Sprayer” = usually a person doing the spraying, usually with paint, usually vandalism; usually not the device itself

*4 
WORDPLAY: in Beton und Seligkeit
This is funny because they took the religious phrase “in Seligkeit” = “in salvation” and added concrete to it.

*5 
"sollen" =means here= "shall" or "will"

*6 
Did you know what a "garland" was without looking it up? I didn't.

BONUS: Here's a live version of the song.