Translation of Würgegriff

He wants us to think about his poem to recognize the details because that is the only way of finding out more about the reality of life. With a lot of observation and analysis we see it in a clearer way.
Did you hear about the earthquake this morning in Greece. This is really terrible, I think that quite a few viligars lost their lifes and many more lost their homes. I am really sad for all of them.
The door of the car was still open, so that he could not drive away. Luckily, two foreigners walked by and we were asking them to help us out. They payed for us and warned us that these situations were common.