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Assouf
Tinariwen Lyrics

NAKID MAHEDJAK YA ASSOUF ERHLALAN
What can I do with this eternal longing

IHANIMANIN DOULHIN ERAKHAN
Which inhabits my soul and my heart in flames

KIK IMIDIWAN INDEK ISSANAN

My friends, who can know

AWA ISSASMADHEN OULH ERAKHAN
What can cool a heart that burns

ATHASSAN ADOUNIA NASSADHAN ITRAN
The world sleeps and I count the stars

SADHANAKHAN SAWADHAKN YOULHIN ERKHAN
I count them and I stoke my burning heart

DIHADH TATHAS ADOUNIA INSAN
When everything lies down and sleeps

AHIDITIS ASSOUF SIMAN IKNAN
And suffuses my heart and my soul

Contributed by Audrey K. Suggest a correction in the comments below.

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Assouf is a particularly hard word to translate. It can mean "loneliness", "longing" or "nostalgia", but also a specific feeling or mood associated with vast uninhabited spaces where spirits dwell. And with exile too. A Touareg once summed up "assouf" as meaning everything which lies out there in the darkness, beyond the warmth of campfire. This is a song written by Ibrahim in the 1980s expressing the longing and homesickness of exile.