When I leave home
The sky will not have moved
The birds will be silent
The nightingale who is used to gales
My fortress in the shadow
Will sway under the same storms

The den-khep (bedspread) intact,
The small lit room
The green velvet curtains
The kha (point) of a blade
Black hair cut off
My parents are sleeping
I leave for the g’angri (mountain with a snowy peak)
To repel our enemies

I have put on the g’ô (man’s suit)
I am a blue shadow
In the streets of the villages
I will cap (protect) our ancestors
The sky is tinged with ‘ngü (silver)
The moon calls with its ‘ngou (wishes)
The women have gone ‘nga (cut the grass)
And the châp (rain) falls violently
On my dreams of purity

I prostrated myself before the stars
They who watch over our eccentricities
I laughed as I rode my horse
The moon shone brightly
The chu (herd) grazed in the dark
I am the most kukpa (crazy) soldier, the feverish mercenary
I left my woman’s skin by the stream
And I gallop under the pearly sky
My skin is kön (pale) my eyes shining with rage

The landscape melts under my horse’s hooves,
The lam (road) will be long, I slow down
I will marry no ‘mâp (husband)
The red earth under my boots,
I am going to kill the enemy sä (prince)
He who murdered my brothers
And the colors of the sky change
The clouds take the shape of the future
The houses disappear in the fog
My sem (pulse) is fast, my breathing is jerky

My fortress in the shadow
The nightingale that is used to gales
The kha (point) of a blade
Black hair cut off
My parents are sleeping
I leave for the g’angri (mountain with snowy peak)
To repel our enemies