Gerungen is the past participle of the verb ringen, which means to wrestle, struggle, or contend. It's a strong, evocative word that suggests a physical or intense mental struggle.
In this song, the artist sings, "Ich habe mit Engeln und Teufeln gerungen" (I have wrestled with angels and devils). This powerful imagery immediately grabs attention, implying a deep, epic struggle against both good and evil forces, making it a memorable and intriguing word choice.
This song sets Mascha Kaléko's poem "Das Mögliche" to music. The four lines repeat like a refrain, building the same small paradox each time: the singer has wrestled with angels and devils, fed by fire and guided by light, and even managed the impossible. And yet the ordinary, possible thing is exactly what keeps slipping away.
That contrast is the whole poem. Big, dramatic struggles feel almost easier to face than the plain, everyday task in front of you. The repetition isn't padding, it's the point: the same confession said over and over, because the gap between what we can achieve and what we can't quite manage to just do never really closes.
Dota Kehr, known simply as Dota, is a German singer-songwriter and producer born in West Berlin in 1979. Before music, she trained and worked as a physician, and she still brings that same precision to her lyrics today.
She grew up in Berlin, picked up the saxophone as a teenager, and started out busking on the street before learning guitar in her early twenties. Under the name Kleingeldprinzessin she built a following with songs influenced by bossa nova, before founding the band Dota und die Stadtpiraten, now known simply as Dota. Her music blends jazz and bossa nova grooves with sharp, socially aware German lyrics, and she has released her albums independently through her own label, Kleingeldprinzessin Records.
"Kurzer Epilog" comes from Dota's project setting the poetry of Mascha Kaléko, the celebrated German-Jewish poet, to music, with fellow German musician Rainald Grebe joining her on this track. It is a quieter, more literary side of her work, letting Kaléko's words about love and loss carry the song.