Kouma [English translation]

I’m wary of this gaze that spies on me

This interested smile,

Those scrutinizing words.

With your sly arguments

What are you hoping to pull from the abyss

In the haven of my thoughts.

Chorus: It’ll be gentle. You won’t feel a thing!

Lead: I won’t reveal my thoughts!

Chorus: I’ll lure you with fine words!

Lead: This refuge is sacrosanct.

Chorus: I’ll seduce you. It’ll open up!

Speech is like a mille feuilles

Every lifted layer reveals another

As words mate together,

No one can foresee

Their scope and reach.

With my words that answer yours,

With each word that will escape me,

To confront your seditious talk,

You’ll put my frailties on display,

Chorus: It’ll be gentle. You won’t feel a thing!

Lead: I won’t give an inch

Chorus: With fine words I’ll lure you!

Lead: My thoughts belong to me

Chorus: I’ll seduce you. They will be mine!

Speech is an ardent ember

Which softens in the mouth of the learnèd

But burns the tongue of the ignorant

And ignites in the hands of the imprudent.

Only the initiated has mastery over the word

Like a sharpened blade

Ill-used it can wound.

Like a wild beast

It attacks when provoked

I won’t say a thing, silence reassures me.

I’ll lure you with fine words!

Hey imprudent, ignorant!

“Be careful!” the sly will tell you,

The lawyers and diplomats

Chorus: It’ll be gentle. You won’t feel a thing!

Lead: I won’t give an inch

Chorus: With fine words I’ll lure you in!

Lead: My thoughts belong to me

Chorus: I’ll seduce you. They will be mine!

• Artist:Rokia Traoré
• Album:Beautiful Africa (2013)