Willkommen Zurück!
Welcome back! – "Willkommen Zurück" by Clueso (ft. Andreas Bourani)
For many of us, September marks the end of the summer months and a return to a more structured routine – whether that means a return to work or school, or the start of something new altogether. Whatever you’re up to as this new season begins, I’m happy to welcome you back to weekly emails from Sprachmelodie – Willkommen zurück!
Fittingly, our first featured song of the season centers on the joys of reunion and togetherness after an extended time apart. “Willkommen Zurück” by German pop singer and rapper Clueso (featuring fellow pop singer Andreas Bourani) debuted in the summer of 2021 as a response to the lightening of lockdown restrictions more than a year into the COVID-19 pandemic. The song utilizes the metaphor of an airplane finally touching back down to earth – “Willkommen zurück, zurück auf der Erde” (Welcome back, back to Earth), “Landebahn ab jetzt auf festem Boden” (The runway is now on solid ground) – and the music video radiates joy, relief, and hope for a full return to normality.
Willkommen zurück, zurück auf der Erde
Welcome back, back to Earth
Was bringst du mit, was gibt's zu erzählen?
What are you bringing with you, what's there to tell?
Autogramme vom Glück, so ist das Leben
Autographs of happiness, that's life
Wie schön es ist, dich wiederzusehen
It’s wonderful to see you again
Willkommen zurück
Welcome back
The song’s themes are further punctuated by a series of verbs at the end of each refrain, each one holding a connection to human relationship:
vermissen - to miss
vergeben - to forgive
verlieben - to fall in love
verstehen - to understand
vergessen - to forget
verlaufen - to get lost
riskieren - to risk
vertrauen - to trust
With the notable exception of “riskieren”, each of the above verbs work together to creative an alliterative effect by way of their shared non-separable prefix “ver”. While many verbs in German do have separable prefixes, a decent-sized group also have prefixes which do not separate from the verb stem, such as be-, ent-, zer-, and ver-, which we see in the song. (Is it taking things things too far to point out the appropriateness of a song about togetherness featuring verbs that also do not separate?!)
One trick for checking if a verb’s prefix is separable or not is to notice where the word's syllable emphasis lies – if the prefix is not emphasized (as is the case with the verbs listed above, with emphasis landing on the second syllable of each verb), then the verb is not separable. Compare the verbs vergeben (to forgive) and aufgeben (to give up), for example – AUFgeben has a separable prefix, while verGEBen does not.
The song’s first verse also provides us with a bonus ver- word: verstaubt (dusty). This adjective’s verb form, verstauben (to gather dust), is of course also non-separable!
I hope this coming fall season reunites you with friends, colleagues, or family, and that you find a bit of time for German language and music in your new routine as well!
Liebe Grüße,
Jessica
P.S. – If you enjoyed this post, please consider clicking “like” and/or sharing it with someone else who may be interested in German music, language, and culture! Ganz lieben Dank!
From the Sprachmelodie Archives 🎵
For more German music inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic, check out the album “12” by AnnenMayKantereit. And you can find more music by Clueso here.
Discover more German Music and Language
Check out Sprachmelodie's Spotify and Youtube accounts for playlists of all songs featured so far on the blog.