Zu Dir Lyrics in English by LEA
Vergeige is a fantastic, informal German verb that means "to mess up" or "to botch" something completely. It's much more expressive than a simple "einen Fehler machen" (to make a mistake).
In the song, LEA sings "Und ich alles vergeige" (And I mess everything up), capturing a moment of vulnerability and failure. This is the kind of colloquial word that will make you sound more like a native speaker, perfect for expressing those times when everything seems to go wrong.
German pop singer LEA zeroes in on a simple, comforting question here: who is your safe person when everything falls apart? She lays out extreme moments in life, from pure ecstasy to hitting rock bottom, and asks over and over if she can run to this one particular friend. She wants to be around them when she drops the polite act: Ohne Maske, ohne fakes Grinsen ("Without a mask, without a fake grin"). It does not matter if she is bursting with joy because she is fast am Ziel ("almost at the goal") or ready to party with high energy, her immediate instinct is to show up at their doorstep.
She is equally blunt about the messy side of life. She sings about needing this person when she has zero money left and is hunting for a Platz zum Pennen ("a place to crash"). Pennen is casual German slang for sleeping, much like saying "to crash" or "to snooze" in English. She even admits she will turn up wenn ich alles vergeige ("when I mess everything up" or "blow it"), using the informal verb vergeigen. Right down to the darkest thought of her final hour on earth, the chorus keeps repeating the hopeful question: Sag, darf ich zu dir? ("Tell me, may I come to you?").
