Heidenroslein vs. Rosenrot

The major change I immediately noticed from Goethe's version to Rammstein's version is that it is, in Goethe's, a boy who notices the rose. Rammstein sings that a girl notices a little rose and wants/needs it. I think that variation really changes the story; for example, if the rose is supposed to be symbolic of a girl who the "brutal boy" rapes, that symbolism is lost since it is, indeed, a girl who notices and desires the rose. It could still symbolize a girl or woman, but not the one that a crime is committed against. Thus the rose becomes only a rose, or may symbolize something other than the victimized girl. Another change: the boy dies (or is very badly hurt) in the Rammstein version. He falls off a cliff in his attempt to get the rose; although it is not the rose that pricks him and causes him pain, the rose indirectly causes his death. So, I guess his girlfriend causes his death by asking for the rose (like she causes his death in the Rammstein video).

I think a very important similarity that the poem and the song maintains is that there in the chorus where the color "red" is mentioned. If the rose loses some of its symbolic meaning, the color certainly does not. Red is often used to connote love or passion, sin, and death. All four of these are evident in both the lyrics for Rammstein and the straight-up poem by Goethe. Rape--"love," passion, sin, and death (in a way) for the victim. The Rammstein video shows the man fall in love with the girl (probably just infatutaion and passion), commit a sin in his passion for her, and die because of it. The girl, by setting up the man to be killed, "stained" her purity and innocence scarlet.

Kind of a side-note, I really liked Rammstein's addition of "Deep waters don't run still." I think that carries a lot of weight in their rendition of Goethe's poem. Deep waters look like they're still, but just like symbols look like what they are, they have a lot more depth and are more dynamic. I think the deep waters are symbolic of the girl in Rammstein's video. She looks innocent and seems like she doesn't mind marrying the man, but beneath the placid surface she is really scheming to get him killed. Again, the symbol of red--she is in love with another and commits her own sin by causing the man's death. She, in a way, becomes the rose-- the thing desired yet unattainable, the thing that causes death--yet was also desirous of the rose--something the man could not give her without causing his own death. Perhaps proof of his love? "Kill this other guy and I'll know you love me." Deep waters--on the surface a "simple" request but with an underlying plot that would pull its victim out to sea with no hope of return, a riptide.