The German Crisis Word (Scheisse)

Lyrics

[Intro]

[Verse 1]
In the schoolhouse on Lindenstrasse, Munich, 1952,
Kiki opens the Duden dictionary, page 1472,
underlined in pencil: Scheisse.
From Old High German scīzan, to separate,
to defecate, by the 14th century it drops
like a stone into conversation.
The temperature is 12 degrees Celsius,
a draft from the window frame carries the smell
of damp wool and peppermint candies
from Frau Meier's tin on the desk.

[Chorus]
Scheisse, the /ʃ/ sound slices the air,
sharp as a knife through rye bread,
butter still clinging to the crust.
Pemba laughs from the back row,
a low rumble, he's heard worse in the ports of Hamburg, 1948.
Scheisse, the crisis word, for when the tram is late,
or the coffee spills on Goethe's letters.

[Verse 2]
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749 to 1832,
wrote it in a letter, November 1780,
'Scheisse auf die ganze Geschichte!'
Frustration over a delayed publication,
the word bursts like the /ʃ/ in Scheibenkleister,
the Bavarian substitute, window glue,
for polite company in the beer halls of Munich.
But Kiki says it straight, no softening,
the etymology is clear, from Middle High German schīze.

[Bridge]

The gaps in the record: rural voices missing,
farmers in Bavaria, 1800s, cursing the rain,
women in kitchens, whispering it over burnt stew,
unwritten, like the laughter that follows.
Pemba chuckles again, he's heard it in six languages,
but this /ʃ/ drop hits different.

[Verse 3]
In the classroom, shadows stretch at 4 PM,
Kiki pronounces it crisply, the hiss filling the room,
mixed with chalk dust and the faint bite of peppermint.
It's universal now, from Berlin streets to Vienna cafes,
the neuroscience: it lights the amygdala less in second tongues,
but here, in German, it's pure, unfiltered drop.

[Outro]

Scheisse, the word that holds the crisis,
Pemba laughs, and the class exhales.