Thoughts on "99 luftballons"

First off, the song rocks. Kudos, Nena, kudos.

So, heard the English translation on the radio this morning. What I can't figure out is -- is it just coincidence that the English rhymes really well? Or did they play with the translation to get it to rhyme?

"The war machine springs to life, opens up one eager eye,
focusing it on the sky,
where 99 Red Balloons go by."

There's even internal assonance there -- is that the literal German translation? I don't think it is, but I don't speak German.

Another thought, a bit more embarrassing (although really, a whole post about 99 red balloons is embarrassing enough). So when the song came out I was what 11? 12? And I liked it, but because "it has a good beat and you can dance to it." I wasn't really thinking about global thermonuclear war, other than in the context of "Matthew Broderick is cute." Whether that's because I was a teenager, and hence thought myself invincible, or because I was an American, and therefore safe from wars that happen "over there," I don't know. Sure, we had "The Morning After" and I do remember a nagging "eek the Russians are scary," worry, but it wasn't a constant, present factor.

But as I listened to the song today, it occurred to me that for a resident of Germany in that era, the threat must have seemed so much more real. Now which is more pathetic, that I didn't realize this at the time, or that it took a pop song to make me think about it?