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submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by EfreetSK@lemmy.world to c/comicstrips@lemmy.world
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[-] MacNCheezus@lemmy.today 5 points 9 months ago

This seems to be a mistranslation, because in German, “wenn” can mean both “if” and “when”, but it’s actually closer to “when”. If you really mean “if”, you use “falls” instead of “wenn”.

So the intended meaning is in fact "tomorrow morning, when God wants it (ie. at the time God wants it), you will wake up again"

[-] lugal@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 9 months ago

I honestly never thought about it that way. It wasn't sung to me when I was little and I only know it from people who misunderstood it. But it's not closer to "when". It's the default for both. You can disambiguate it to "falls" or "sobald" but "wenn" is in both contexts the most common word.

[-] MacNCheezus@lemmy.today 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I can’t argue with that, because the German “wenn” is definitely more ambiguous than the English “when”, but since it’s a lullaby, you kinda have to assume that perhaps it’s leaning more on the positive side, because who on earth would want their baby to die in their sleep?

If Germans really were this cruel, they would have been wiped off the face of the earth a long time ago.

[-] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 9 months ago

because who on earth would want their baby to die in their sleep?

actually, this exact thought was really calming to me when i was a kid (yes, the song was sung to me too):

if i die, at least i die in my sleep, where i wouldn't really be aware of it anyways, so i don't have to care about it. it's like, every human has to die sometime, but at least it can be in your sleep. and there's nothing you can do about it either, so you don't have to worry about it.

[-] lugal@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 9 months ago

Since the song is quite old and "when" is the older meaning, there is a point to make about the intended meaning. What I took issue with was calling it a mistranslation and at least by now I think we agree it's not

[-] kossa@feddit.org 1 points 9 months ago

Well, another datapoint on "how cruel are Germans towards their children" is the Struwwelpeter story collection. Like, children get their thumbs cut off for sucking it or starving for not eating their soup etc.

So, I lean towards "if". And, honestly, I remember understanding it like that as child 😅

[-] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

i think "wenn" is indeed translated as if, while "wann" is translated as when

or maybe people use the same word differently, i'm not sure

this post was submitted on 22 Nov 2025
995 points (98.3% liked)

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