Astronaut

Quiet and mute, you go on your journey,
And, weightless, draw circles across the deep blue.
You look in the distance and need only the stars;
astronauts are so happy, just being alone.

And, if everything here tonight should just explode,
what is it that you've really risked?
Was there nothing to lose? Really, no one to lose?
To you it's all the same--the people banal,
and this whole stupid, little world's second best.

You torment yourself, you roll in your bed;
you don't sleep anymore, don't even eat.
You're so stuck as you tumble through space and through time,
because nothing can hold you, nothing delights you,
so nothing can ever be missed.
How did your heart ever get so worn out?

Among the planets you play Blind Man's Bluff--
so indescribable the light and the views--
you go chasing rockets and bright shooting stars,
but it's life down here you never see.

So you look in the distance, you need only the stars;
astronauts are so happy just being alone.
You dream of adventures with monsters so mean,
aliens and dragons and, oh, so much more:
astronauts really have to be brave!

And, if everything here tonight should just explode,
you have nothing to lose,
to you it's all the same--
the people banal,
and, since nothing quite matters,
you feel so abandoned
and as dark and as cold as the moon.

Words and music by Anna Depenbusch
Translated by Frank Beck

• VIDEO: Anna Depenbush sings Astronaut in Hamburg, 2011
• The song's lyrics in German
• My profile of Anna Depenbusch

'Astronaut' comes from the 2011 album, Die Mathematik der Anna Depenbusch

If you come home to me

Anna Depenbusch performing in Munich in 2013

If you come home to me, 

honey, things will be different.

I promise you that I will change--

but right now, please don’t leave me alone.

If you come home to me, we’ll take it from the top,

and tonight, at the door, I will a leave a light on.

Yes, I know that I've really screwed up.

That silly little thing about your Porsche – you know I'm so sorry.

I also understand by going off with that guy

I took things a few steps too far.

If you come home to me, we’ll take it from the top,

And tonight, at the door, I will a leave a light on.

I’m losing my mind, a little more with each day.

Since you’re gone every breath is an effort.

The craziest thoughts are hunting me down;

I wonder how I could ever have been so damn dumb and stupid.

If you come home to me, we’ll take it from the top,

And tonight, at the door, I will a leave a light on.

Because I am your mouse; I'm your puppy, your precious crystal; 

I’m your fate, I'm your darling, your sweet nightingale.

And you are my hero, my brave knight and ivory tower;

you're my parachute, my compass, my beacon in the storm.

If you come home to me, I give my word on it--

I won’t smoke anymore; I won’t take you for stupid

and run drunk in the dark to the arms of strange men.

If you come home, everything will be different

If you come home, I swear that I’ll be your girl.

If you come home, I’ll kick the others right out the door.

But when will you come home to me?

When will you come back?

"Wenn du nach Hause kommst" - Words and music by Anna Depenbusch; translation by Frank Beck

This song is a particular favorite of mine; it's a brilliant portrait of a person who--like all of us, at times--can't quite see the untenable position she's in. Anna's performance (in a small studio for a 2011 webcast) makes the whole situation perfectly believable--if not forgivable.

• Anna Depenbusch sings "Wenn du nach Hause kommst"
• Lyrics in German
• Anna Depenbusch on iTunes
• My profile of Anna Depenbusch