

Käptn Peng & DieTentakel von Delphi – “MC HomoSapiensSapiens“
It´s not easy to understand me
Learned to walk but I came from the sea
I started hearing, seeing, and finally grasped
How to draw and write and count what lasts
Walked on the moon and built flying machines
Swallowed whole forests and cloned a sheep
´Cause this brain I possess is able to process
Vast amounts of data in the middle of this mess
But still the ape I am wants to engrave its name
In 6000 languages into the face of this land
I was created as the boss
Split atoms and beheaded god
I am the top of the food chain, the genius is me
I win every battle, mother earth is a whack MC
I am the final mutant, thinking´s outdated
While my semi-conductors are celebrated
I am a genius, but blind
A million years old, but still a child
I am the crown of creation
But slowly working on my own deletion
I invented quiz shows, the genocide of the Maya
Created Teleshopping and the Greek Drama
Cinnamon rolls, vaccines and euthanasia
Napalm, Tamagotchi, my fantasy has no borders
I discovered the bosom, the atom, the genome
I created religion, electricity, the pogrom
Evolution´s intelligence is manifested in me
Even the greatest animal bends its knee
I took a bite from the apple of knowledge
And then shat skyscrapers into the desert
Which I created from the blood of my own kind
I love every religion that is based on sacrifice
I am the first beast to wonder what it is
Questioning my purpose, my future, my use
I am the most curious ape of all time
That´s the most humble description of my genius
Our judges feedback:
‘We believe this entrant did very well to spot instances where a direct translation wouldn’t work. They managed to circumvent these challenges effectively without losing the original meaning, at times employing some especially creative solutions. They were not afraid to reorganise the text slightly in order to preserve the rhyme scheme, such as swapping the order of words. We were also pleased to see the frequent use of idiomatic language, which made the translation read very naturally.’