Du hast (3:54)

“Du hast” (German, “you have”) is a song by the German Tanz-Metall band Rammstein from the 1997 album Sehnsucht. The song is one of the band’s best known worldwide, owing to its inclusion on the soundtrack of The Matrix and heavy airplay on MTV. It has also been featured in other films, such as CKY2K and 2001’s How High, as well as TV’s Gilmore Girls in the episode “Presenting Lorelai Gilmore”.

The video for the song was influenced by Reservoir Dogs.

Two versions can be found, one with the chorus and first three verses in English, and another completely in German. The lyrics to the English version are not a translation of the lyrics in German.

The song hit #20 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in the United States. It is the highest charting German language song in the history of that chart.
Lyrics

The whole song is a play on German wedding vows.

The refrain (“Willst du, bis der Tod euch scheidet, treu ihr sein für alle Tage?”) translates to “Will you, until Death separates you, be faithful to her forever?” Instead of answering with “ja” (“yes”), the singer says “nein” (“no”), finally breaking his silence earlier in the song: “Du hast mich gefragt, und ich hab nichts gesagt”, which translates to “You asked me, and I said nothing.”

As stated earlier, the English version of Du Hast is not translated, but changed altogether (“Du hasst” (du haßt) means “you hate”. The extra “s” differentiates it from the conjugated verb form of haben (to have).