[book] E.T.A. Hoffman - Der Sandmann, [song] Coppelius - Schöne Augen

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen!

Tonight I am going to show you something less known. Then again, I think everything is less known compared to Rammstein, so yeah. This freaky band gives us an intellectual masterpiece, which needs some explanation. 

Once upon a time, in 1816, a guy with the sounding name Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann wrote a short story called "Der Sandmann"(The Sandman). This book is pretty famous in the German language area and you should definitely read it. (It's only about 40 pages...)  

the Sandman, drawn by Hoffmann

While the book is very short, the interpretations fill hundreds of pages, so I try to give you a very short summary. (Attention, this contains spoilers and doesn't cope the awesomeness of this story. It's very short so read it anyway!):

The young Nathanael lives happy with his family. At the evenings father tells them nice stories (1816... no TV!) but in some dark nights a creepy man named Coppelius comes to do some secret work with Nathanael's father. Coppelius is best described by Wikipedia: "a fear-instilling, large and malformed man who spoiled the happiness of Nathanael and his siblings in their childhood".

In the nights Coppelius comes, his mother tells him to go to bed because the sandman is coming. He doesn't know who the sandman is, but according to the legends he cuts out the eyes of little children and after hearing those legends Nathanael is of course very afraid of Coppelius. One night Nathanael's father dies because an experiment went wrong. Turns out creepy Coppelius and Nate's dad did some secret forbidden alchemy stuff.
Jumpcut, Nate is a student at a university. One day a creepy Italian salesman called Coppola comes to sell glasses, lenses, barometers and such stuff. Nate totally freaks out because he thinks to recognize Coppelius. He writes letters home to tell this his fiancée Clara and also one of his best friends Lothar, but they answer that he shouldn't act like he was nuts. 

In the holidays he travels back to his loved ones only to find out after his return that there was a big fire and his flat burned down.

videogame character "Ashlotte"
from the soul calibur series
might be based on Olimpia. Do you
see the cogwheels in her stomach?

His new flat is opposite to the flat of his professor of physics Mr. Spalanzani, who lives together with his daugther Olimpia. Long story short, Nate buys a spy-glass from creepy Coppola and starts stalking Olimpia. He forgets about his fiancée Clara and totally falls in love with the beautiful but kind of shy Olimpia. One day he wants to marry her. He grabs the ring (which was supposed for Clara) runs over to Spalanzani's place and overhears a big fight. Spalanzani and Coppola are arguing about some technical issues. Nate comes in to find Spalanzani and Coppola wrestling over Olimpia, who is revealed to be an automaton or robot. A part wodden, part wax doll, run by cogwheels and fine precise technology. They break her during their fight, the glass eyes pop on the floor and Coppola grabs Olimpia and runs away. 
Nathanael's whole world breaks, he becomes mad and tries to kill Spalanzani. 
Also the society in the city gets very scared that there might live some other machines amongst them. 

Lucky Nate recovers, reunites with Clara and Lothar and they live happily ever after at some nice estate near Nate's hometown.

One day they pass the city, where Nate studied. They stop to climb the steeple to enjoy the good view. Up there Nate gets a madness backflash, tries to throw Clara down but she is saved by Lothar. Nate discovers Coppola between the people who stare up to him. He starts dancing and screaming "pretty eyes, pretty eyes" before he throws himself down. 

This was only a very short summary of the plot. As I indicated the German literature science made  its own little subgenre of "Sandman science" with hundreds of papers and theses. Just one example: Famous austrian psychotherapist Siegmund Freud wrote his own interpretation of it to back up his own theories. There are thousands of possible questions like "Are Coppola and Coppelius the same person?", "why is the eye-motive so important?" etc. etc.. 

It is in my opinion one of the most exciting topics German high-literature has to offer, it was also one of the scariest books I ever read and I am currently working on a paper about it where I compare the doll / puppet / robot - motive to our popculture. 

A famous example for automatons and robots in our pop culture. 

If you wondered why I was telling you this whole thing, popcultue is the operative point.
After this whole summary you now know why the following German band called themselves Coppelius. And after reading my summary you also know why they called this song "schöne Augen", which means of course "pretty eyes".  

Prepare yourself because what you are now going to hear is some unusual stuff. They use drums, double bass, cello and clarinets and describe their music as "19th century chamber (music) core".  With their old fashioned clothes including top hats and their choice of instruments it is a very unusual and special band. I have known this band for about 3 or 4 years and I hated them due to their crazy tunes... but times and people change and now I love them.  

video:

lyrics:

(Meine Damen, meine Herren, ich präsentiere Ihnen: Coppelius)

(LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, I PRESENT TO YOU: COPPELIUS)

Hallo, mein kleiner Freund

HELLO, MY LITTLE FRIEND

Dass ich dich erst jetzt bemerk'

 'THAT I NOTICE YOU ONLY NOW

Was bist du für ein feiner Kerl  

WHAT A NICE FELLOW YOU ARE

Fehlst mir gerade für mein Werk

I'M MISSING YOU FOR MY CREATION

Doch wo willst du hin

BUT WHERE DO YOU WANT TO GO

Du bleibst jetzt hier

YOU WILL STAY NOW

Ich sagte gerad’ ich brauche dich

I SAID I NEED YOU

So glaube mir

SO BELIEVE ME

Du fragst: "Wozu soll ich kleiner Junge taugen?"

YOU ASK: "WHEREFORE SHELL I, JUST A SMALL BOY, BE GOOD FOR?"

Ich will nur eines – Deine schönen Augen

I WANT ONLY ONE THING - YOUR PRETTY EYES

Entzückend diese Angst

DELIGHTFUL, THIS FEAR

Hat mein Gestank dich so erschreckt?

DID MY SICKENING SMELL SCARE YOU? 

Oder haben meine dicken kalten Finger deine Furcht geweckt?  

OR DID MY THICK COLD FINGERS WAKE YOUR FEAR?

Du fragst: "Wozu soll ich kleiner Junge taugen?"

YOU ASK: "WHEREFORE SHELL I, JUST A SMALL BOY, BE GOOD FOR?"

Ich will nur eines – Deine schönen Augen, Augen

"I WANT ONLY ONE THING - YOUR PRETTY EYES, EYES

Mir war’s als würden Menschengesichter Ringsumher sichtbar,

IT WAS TO ME, AS IF PEOPLE'S FACES APPEARED ALL AROUND

jedoch ohne Augen Scheußliche tiefe schwarze Höhlen statt ihrer

BUT WITHOUT EYES, HORRIBLE DEEP BLACK HOLES INSTEAD

Und Coppelius sprach: „Schöne Augen her!“

AND COPPELIUS SAID: "PRETTY EYES HERE!"

Es ist gleich vorbei

IT'S OVER SOON

Du wirst mich nicht mehr sehen

YOU WON'T SEE ME ANYMORE

Musst fortan durch die Finsternis gehen

FROM NOW ON YOU HAVE TO GO THROUGH THE DARKNESS

Du fragst: "Wozu soll ich kleiner Junge taugen?"

YOU ASK: "WHEREFORE SHELL I, A SMALL BOY, BE GOOD FOR?"

Ich will nur eines – Deine schönen

I WANT ONLY ONE THING - YOUR PRETTY

Du fragst: "Wozu soll ich kleiner Junge taugen?"

YOU ASK: "WHEREFORE SHELL I, A SMALL BOY, BE GOOD FOR?"

Ich will nur eines – Deine schönen Augen, Augen, Augen, Augen

I ONLY WANT ONE THING - YOUR PRETTY EYES, EYES, EYES, EYES

final words:

nothing to say about the lyrics. The lyrics are pretty clear if you know the plot of the book. Hope you enjoyed this innovative crazy band, if you find the book I highly recommend it, it's one of the best German books ever in my humble opinion. I think there is a pretty good chance that this song is going to be the first song which appears in this blog and also in my german and way more complex pendant http://jenseitsderlyrik.blogspot.co.at/  Thanks for visiting and if the sandman didn't scare you off, maybe until next time... and sweet dreams!