Killing Me Softly With His Song – English Lyrics
Lyrics & Translation
[English]
Strumming my pain with his fingers
Singing my life with his words
Killing me softly with his song
Killing me softly with his song
Telling my whole life with his words
Killing me softly with his song
...
Yo (yeah, yeah)
This is Wyclef, Refugee Camp (L Boogie up in here)
Pra'zrel (Pra'zrel up in here)
Little Base sittin' up there on the bass (Refugees up in here)
While I'm on this, I got my girl L
One time (one time)
One time (one time)
Ayo L, you know you got the lyrics
I heard he sang a good song
I heard he had a style
And so I came to see him
And listen for a while
And there he was
This young boy, stranger to my eyes
Strumming my pain with his fingers (one time, one time)
Singing my life with his words (two times, two times)
Killing me softly with his song
Killing me softly with his song
Telling my whole life with his words
Killing me softly with his song
...
I felt all flushed with fever
Embarrassed by the crowd
I felt he found my letters
Then read each one out loud
I prayed that he would finish
But he just kept right on
Strumming my pain with his fingers (one time, one time)
Singing my life with his words (two times, two times)
Killing me softly with his song
Killing me softly with his song
Telling my whole life with his words
Killing me softly with his song
Yo, L Boog, take me to the bridge
...
Strumming my pain with his fingers (yes he was)
Singing my life with his words
Killing me softly with his song
Killing me softly with his song
Telling my whole life with his words
Killing me softly with his song
...
Yo put your hands together for L Boogie from the Refugee Camp
(Up in here) you know how we do (L Boogie up in here)
Wyclef, Pra-zrel (Wyclef up in here)
My man Little Base (Pra'zrel up in here)
Jerry one time (T Rocks up in here, we got Warren up in here)
This is how we (Warren up, up in here, Outsiders up in here)
Refugee Camp, Refugee Camp (we got Fallon up in here, Mulaney)
(Mulaney's up in here, we got Val' up in here)
Everybody got a breaking point kid
And they'll rat on you
The family niggas will rat on you
That's why we gotta be prepared to take whoever out we need to
(I told you I was gonna get you next)
...
Key Vocabulary
| Vocabulary | Meanings |
|---|---|
|
pain /peɪn/ B1 |
|
|
life /laɪf/ A2 |
|
|
song /sɒŋ/ A1 |
|
|
fingers /ˈfɪŋgərz/ A2 |
|
|
words /wɜːrdz/ A2 |
|
|
song /sɒŋ/ A1 |
|
|
whole /hoʊl/ B2 |
|
|
life /laɪf/ A2 |
|
|
telling /ˈtɛlɪŋ/ B2 |
|
|
softly /ˈsɒfli/ B2 |
|
|
killing /ˈkɪlɪŋ/ B2 |
|
Key Grammar Structures
-
Killing me softly with his song
➔ Present continuous tense
➔ The phrase uses the **present continuous tense** to describe an ongoing action happening at the moment.
-
Strumming my pain with his fingers
➔ Gerund phrase as subject
➔ The phrase **'strumming my pain'** functions as a **gerund phrase**, acting as the subject of the sentence, indicating the action being performed.
-
Telling my whole life with his words
➔ Gerund phrase as subject
➔ The **'telling my whole life'** functions as a **gerund phrase**, serving as the subject that describes the action of revealing or expressing personal history.
-
Embarrassed by the crowd
➔ Adjective describing a state
➔ The word **'Embarrassed'** is an **adjective** that describes the speaker's emotional state, often used with the preposition **by** to indicate the cause of the emotion.
-
I felt he found my letters
➔ Past simple tense
➔ The phrase uses the **past simple tense** ('felt', 'found') to describe completed actions in the past.
-
I'll be singing for you always
➔ Future continuous tense
➔ The phrase **'I'll be singing'** uses the **future continuous tense** to indicate an action that will be ongoing at a specific future time.
