Wo Trost und Leid zerfließen
Nichts Gutes liegt verborgen nass
In deinen feuchten Wiesen
Keiner weiss was hier geschah
Die Fluten rostigrot
Die Fische waren atemlos
Und alle Schwämme tot
An den Ufern in den Wiesen
Die Tiere wurden krank
Aus den Augen in den Fluss
Triebabscheulicher Gestank
Wo sind die Kinder
Niemand weisst was hier geschehen
Keiner hat etwas gesehen
Wo sind die Kinder
Niemand hat etwas gesehen
Mütter standen bald am Strom
Und weinen eine Flut
Auf die Felder durch die Leiche
Stieg das Leid in alle Teiche
Schwarze Fahnen auf der Stadt
Alle Ratten fett und satt
Die Brummen giftig allerort
Und die Menschen soviel fort
Wo sind die Kinder
Niemand weisst was hier geschehen
Keiner hat etwas gesehen
Wo sind die Kinder
Niemand hat etwas gesehen
Donauquell dein Aderlass
Wo Trost und Leid zerfließen
Nichts Gutes liegt verborgen nass
In deinen feuchten Wiesen
Wo sind die Kinder
Niemand weisst was hier geschehen
Keiner hat etwas gesehen
Wo sind die Kinder
Niemand hat etwas gesehen
English translation by Affenknecht.com:
Children of the Danube
Donau Spring your bloodletting/bleeding
Where comfort and sorrow dissolve
Nothing good lies hidden, wet
in your damp meadows
No one knows what happened here
The floods (are) rusty red
The fishes were breathless
And all sponges dead
At the banks in the meadows
The animals became sick
Out of the eyes into the river
(the) stench (of) vile urge
Where are the children?
No one knows what happened here
Nobody saw anything
Where are the children?
No one saw anything.
Soon mothers stand at the stream
And cry a flood
On the fields through the dead body
The sorrow climbed into all ponds
Black flags on the city
All rats fat and satisfied
The poisonous humming everywhere And the people so far away
Where are the children?
No one knows what happened here
Nobody saw anything
Where are the children?
No one saw anything.
Donau Spring your bloodletting/bleeding
Where comfort and sorrow dissolve
Nothing good lies hidden, wet
in your damp meadows
Where are the children?
No one knows what happened here
Nobody saw anything
Where are the children?
No one saw anything.
The song deals with an accident near Baia Mare, in Romania, which occurred on 30th Januar 2000.
Extremely heavy rainfall on 30 January caused a dam to breach, causing 100.000 m³ of water to flood a goldmine and carry with it app. 100 ton of heavy metals and sodium cyanide into the nearby river Donau (German name for the Danube). The poison was carried along the river, causing havoc in several countries; drinking water became poisoned, and people fled the rivers’ surroundings to escape the deadly poison, which quickly destroyed all life in and around the river itself.
Lots of children were obviously affected by this disaster, but the name ‘Donaukinder’ (’Danube Children’) more probably refers metaphorically to the fish in the river, seen as the ‘children’ of the Danube/Donau; the fish obviously suffered most directly the full force of this disaster and the absence of fish in the river is the most obvious consequence of the disaster. Hence, the song rhetorically asks: ‘Wo sind die Kinder?’ (’Where are the children?’). Furthermore, the German name for Baia Mare, where the breach occured, is ‘Frauenbach’, meaning ‘Woman-River’, which sustains the metaphor of comparing River/Fish to Mother/Children. (Last FM)
But Romanian Gold Mine Reopens Despite Cyanide Disaster Fears
No matter such disasters, the lobby of gold, under a new gold fever and uncontrolled capitalistic paranoia, doesn't hesitate to use the most toxic ways to extract the last and very small concentrations of gold from billions of tons of rocks that consist natural lansscapes, exterminating useful lands, forests, aquatic environments and aquifers and intoxicating fauna, flora and consequently local societies.
Greece, and especially the Northern parts and the touristic paradise of Chalkidiki are in great peril for being surrendered to the new gold fever amd the most beautiful forests are going to be destroyed for a fistfull of gold. Local societies were risen, but the Greek state, in favour of the private interests violently supresses any kind of peaceful demonstration and Mass Media ignore them, because they are property of the Greek lobby of gold. The gold fever also has striken Turkey and other Balkan countries, where local societies and States violently collide.
You can hear this song in youtube