Odyssée d'une incomprise [English translation]

A bit unstable, I don't care if you judge me wrongly

I'm a bit frustrated, no worse and no better than anyone else

You know, I spit on my malaise, to tell the truth, it's helped me

To put words to my stormy moods, to prevent the shadows barking

I've never forgotten anything that's helped to make me who I am

I left, mic in hand, telling myself "Whoever likes me will follow me"

Assuming my guts, my past, my ideas which

To limited, cynical hearts are nothing more than utopias

But what is life, for one who claims to know?

A toxic cage for the living, like a pilgrim, I follow my own path

I promised myself that I would never

Shoot myself in the foot, I was so afraid that I'd betray myself when I saw glory arriving

Notoriety, you don't have me!

Beautiful illusion, you wanted my liberty, but it's stronger than you

I had trouble accepting you, always, I'm still not used to it

Ok, mektoub and then cheh, return of the ugly duckling. . .

It pleased me in the past, and then my mother (?)

I told her, "Don't worry mum, I'll get out of this, you have my word"

On those dark nights, freaking out after phone calls from the police

"Your daughter fled again, we don't know what city she's in!"

Tears flowed under the bridge, mama

As I slept, I almost drowned, I was lifted up because they took us for idiots

Letting myself die would be proving them right

It's out of pride that I said "no"

I survived, with a piece of paper as my confidant

Rap music, fifteen years ago

Let your melodies give me words to free myself from my frustrations

Tools of my own revolution

I died to be reborn, because we can't build without demolition

Landed in a world where the rules have been rigged

For centuries, it's a fresco which they've used to dupe us from the start

I was taught how to have, (?) school didn't give me answers!

Didn't listen to my questions! And then made me go mad!

I wanted to learn to be, I learned to roll with the punches

Deep in shit, I learned what it was like to stick together

Hey cousin, listen, I dropped out when I was twelve years old

What I have, what I know, I'm part of the search, alone against everything

A quest for Truth, and for a cold revenge

I wanted to understand Babylon, to know who was guilty

And I realised that here, no-one is innocent

Indifference has blood-soaked hands

They had us, there's really more compassion

Than those with heads shaped like piggy-banks, you see that image everywhere

There's not much space between unleashing your emotions and resignation

Elimination of our bonds, prepared in a thousand and one ways

The story of a civilisation plunged into terror

Which build this building with a bomb inside it

I will not be an accomplice

Every story that dies is a victory that breaks (?)

The arrival of a 20.12, the odyssey of a misunderstood girl

Thank you all for having understood my cries, who would have thought it?

To leave my crew, the bomb of fear, honestly, my rage was brutish

It was the voice of an emergency that my brothers did not see

The injustices engraved in me that the wind can't sweep away

Wesh, hands off, rap, a nest of vipers*

But where we're going, if everyone indulges their little caprices of little kings

Then we'll play with the stars, and then betray ourselves for fame

And won't be real, brother, we grilled you, for us you're nothing but a clown

Do you get it? A mere puppet of showbiz, a sham

Breath stinking of pride, you're as fake as your posture

You want to be American, do you also want to crush the Third World with your shoes?

Hey, gringo, you're not one of us, man

Builders of another world, we can't see it any other way

Nostalgic for another time, their tanks posed on our temples

This is the age of false prophets who lie to us and lead us

Don't talk about the financial crisis any more, not now when the crisis is human

Hearts are starved of affection, love and tenderness

Everything else is derived from or substituted for that problem

We're made to love, go, go tell everyone

Descended from the stars, not from monkeys, let alone from dinosaurs

If I propose or think of a new plan, it's that the whole world is my "home"

All the hard knocks that are connected, understand me or unplug me

Atlantis of the 21st century, is this the end approaching?

Apocalyptic era, I march with angels at my back

Landless asylum seekers, and they want us to keep sitting down

A Nazi century, king of the border, here you'll lose your life for nothing

I raise my rhyme to those who remain themselves, who think for themselves

In a world which sings "fear", with a fanfare of hatred behind it

Times are grim, don't trivialise my words

They have an unexpected strength and creative power

Everything comes from the Word, and only the Word can undo the knots

If it's handled with love, for the Word is sacred

We're here to burst your bubble, cold West,

Here, where you can still look the other way

Kingdom of adverts and screens,

The whole earth reduced to slavery

Humanity at the end of time,

Millennia bleeding in the luggage

Just take a moment, icy West

To hear the screams during your rampages. . .

• Artist:Keny Arkana
• Album:L'esquisse vol 2