Dreigroschoper Mackie Messer Lyrics in English Kurt Weil

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Below, I translated the lyrics of the song Dreigroschoper Mackie Messer by Kurt Weil from German to English.

And the shark has teeth

And it wears them in its face

And MacHeath has a knife

But nobody sees the knife

On a lovely blue Sunday

A dead man lies on the beach

And someone turns the corner

Who people call Mack the Knife

And Schmul Meier stays missing

And more than one rich man

And Mack the Knife has his money

Nobody can prove a thing on him

Jenny Towler was found

With a knife in her chest

And Mack the Knife walks on the quay

Who knew nothing at all

And the great fire in Soho

Seven kids and an old man

In the crowd Mack the Knife, whom

nobody asks, and he knows nothing

And the underage widow

Whose name everyone knows

Woke up and was violated

Mackie, what was your price?

Woke up and was violated

Mackie, what was your price?

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SONG MEANING

**Think of a jazzy carnival where everyone is humming a catchy tune, yet every verse reveals a fresh crime scene—that is the wicked charm of “Dreigroschenoper Mackie Messer.” The song introduces Mackie as a shark in human form: a dashing gentleman whose knife stays hidden while his smile dazzles. Each stanza catalogs another grisly misdeed—a body on a beach, a vanished banker, a young widow defiled—yet society keeps tip-toeing past him, either too frightened or too fascinated to call him out. The contrast between the jaunty melody and the dark storyline reminds us how easily charisma can mask cruelty.

At its core, the song is a satirical spotlight on social hypocrisy. Brecht and Weill invite us to cheer along to Mackie’s exploits so we can feel how entertainment can dull our moral compass. By the final question—“Mackie, what was your price?”—the listener is left wondering who is truly guilty: the smooth criminal, or the crowd that claps while he slips away. The result is a playful yet unsettling lesson on the thin line between respectability and crime, wrapped in a tune you will keep humming long after the last victim is named.

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Kurt Weil Dreigroschoper Mackie Messer Lyrics