Sur Un Coup De Tête Lyrics in English Maëlle

Below, I translated the lyrics of the song Sur Un Coup De Tête by Maëlle from French to English.
I took a verse from Apollinaire
At the back of the lecture hall the day before yesterday
A double calligram without a mirror
A cocktail of fear that fades
On my slate, the chalk gets angry
It scratches my life like a cheat sheet
A drop of white on my wandering
I glue the page of my childhood
I dare, I dare
On a whim
A joyful face
I write, I sing with the ink of my desires
On a whim
A face of dread
I flee, I dodge the intoxication of the forbidden
I still dare
I dare stronger
I start the chapter of audacity
I then leave the classroom noise
In the fumes of my guitar
I drift away from the mirror's rhymes
I flee the concordance of tenses
I wander across my notebook
I won't hesitate anymore
To breathe the suffocated air
I dare, I dare
On a whim
A joyful face
I write, I sing with the ink of my desires
On a whim
A face of dread
I flee, I dodge the intoxication of the undecided
I still dare
I dare on a whim
A joyful face
I write, I sing with the ink of my desires
On a whim
A joyful face
I write, I sing with the ink of my desires
On a whim
A face of dread
I flee, I dodge the intoxication of the undecided
I still dare
I dare stronger
Lyrics and Translations Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc
Calogero Maurici
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SONG MEANING

Sur Un Coup De Tête paints the moment a young dreamer snaps a piece of chalk in half and scribbles her own future. Maëlle starts in a stuffy lecture hall, borrowing a verse from the poet Apollinaire and feeling the classroom walls close in. Chalk screeches across her slate, teachers’ rules blur like spilled white-out, and childhood pages are pasted shut. In that instant she chooses impulse over routine: j’ose – “I dare.”

The song grows into a guitar-soaked escape where writing and singing become oxygen. Each chorus swings between gueule de joie (a face full of joy) and gueule d’effroi (a face full of dread), showing that freedom is thrilling yet terrifying. Maëlle rejects “the concordance of tenses” and the “drunkenness of the undecided,” celebrating creative courage that ignores every timetable. The message is clear: on a single whim you can leave fear behind, let your desires ink the page, and shout your own calligram to the world.

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