Ape (feat. DeBee)
Nilk feat. DeBee · 2025
VERSE
Sono lacrima di sole
Sopra un tulipano bianco
Annotation
Refers to the Egyptian myth of bees born from the sun god's tears, born of suffering but carrying beauty. The white tulip evokes peace and forgiveness. Together, they convey awareness of being in the right place while a lingering sadness remains.
Al tramonto, tanto
Sola tra le tante
La voce non la sentirai
Annotation
Amid the noise of daily life, even what is near feels distant. The voice is lost, not because it doesn't exist, but because it finds no room to be heard.
Ti sentirò distante
Da quel nido d'amore tra i nodi di un ramo
Che se provo a sciogliere cado in errore
Annotation
Home and the relationship are a stable but intertwined refuge: any attempt to change the balance risks conflict.
Vorrei piangere, senza sembrare pazza
Senza una corazza che è d'oro e dolore
Ma la voce è flebile
Annotation
The shield recalls the bee's body, black and gold: what is possessed is precious but hard to bear. Showing dissatisfaction or vulnerability risks seeming ungrateful, so emotions remain held back.
CHORUS
Mi sento in trappola
Mi stringi troppo
La sai una cosa?
Non sono una rosa
Annotation
The relationship becomes a trap. The need is to clarify: it is not something that hurts, not dangerous.
Non ti ferirei
Non ti sfiorerei
Aprissi la mano
Volerei lontano
Non infierirei
Annotation
The need is for space without destruction. Leaving is not an attack on the relationship, but a way to not break it, to return to oneself without harming the other.
VERSE
Non sono come mi dipingi
Sento attorno le tue dita
Vita mia così mi stringi
Annotation
Being reduced to a role that does not match who one truly is. Love remains, but becomes tight.
Che se poi ti pungi
Fa più male a me, tu fingi
Annotation
When you hurt the relationship, you suffer less than the one who holds it together. Pretense protects the one who wounds.
Amare è come costruire piramidi e sfingi
Annotation
Loving becomes an enormous and exhausting task. A reference to Egypt and the initial symbol, now filled with frustration.
Non è del tutto chiaro che il chiaro di luna
È l'autore di pericolose maree
Annotation
It is not obvious that what illuminates is also what causes the disturbance. Doubt about the true cause of inner oscillations.
Mi ammalia il miele intorno al mio anulare
Ammiro morire nell'etere le mie idee
Annotation
The sweetness of marriage coexists with the fading of one's own projects.
Resto impassibile
Le ali che fremono
Annotation
Outside, immobility; inside, tension. Like holding back something ready to fly.
BRIDGE
Quanti fiori recisi, come fosse averne cura
Annotation
A gesture that seems loving but in reality takes life away.
Quanti passi decisi come ne fossi sicura
Annotation
Illusion of certainty; beneath it remains doubt.
E quanti nomi incisi su panchine, tronchi e mura
E ancora quanti sorrisi
Neanche fosse primavera
Annotation
Love symbols repeated until emptied, like a spring that brings no warmth.
Proverò a sciogliere il nodo
E almeno un po' di questa cera
Cercando di salvare l'atmosfera
Annotation
An attempt to unlock emotionally and relationally. The "wax" recalls the hive cells, home. Bees can literally save the atmosphere.
Con l'intera terra in crisi
Non mi abbracci questa sera?
Annotation
Faced with everything seeming to collapse, the need is reduced to the essential: a hug.
Che sguardo gelido, qualcosa si è rotto
Ancora ti amo, però mi ferisce
E lo so che
Annotation
Distance is visible. Love remains, but it hurts.
Il prato è gelido, ma cosa c'è sotto?
Se ora mi adopero, rifiorisce
Oppure no?
Annotation
The cold lawn is the surface; beneath there may be life. Doubt remains.
CHORUS
Mi sento in trappola
Mi stringi troppo
La sai una cosa?
Non sono una rosa
Annotation
Returns to the starting point, but now with awareness.
Non ti ferirei
Non ti sfiorerei
Aprissi la mano (no)
Volerei lontano
Non infierirei
Rifiorirei
Annotation
The "no" lingers in the background. The intent is rebirth, not destruction.
OUTRO
Ti odierò se potrò
Altrimenti mio malgrado ti amerò
Se dovrò, altrimenti mio malgrado ti odierò
Se vorrò, altrimenti mio malgrado ti amerò
Annotation
Reference to Ovid: the conflict between will and feeling, always tied to the theme of bees in the Latin text.
Altrimenti mio malgrado
Traccierò una traiettoria fatta ad otto ma al contrario
Annotation
The figure eight recalls the movement of bees and infinity, but here it is a loop with no exit. Bees do it to indicate the position and direction of food — here, an insatiable hunger.
O forse è il mondo che è al contrario
E mi condannerà all'oblio
Annotation
The problem could lie in the external context: a flawed society that suppresses those who make no noise.
Forse è un mondo immaginario
Quello che volevo io
Annotation
Desire at war with the disillusionment of a bitter reality, one you do not know will ever change.
Behind the song
Ape, performed alongside DeBee, was written during a deep and complex period of married and parenting life, mine and my wife’s. It tells the struggle between the desire to follow one’s dreams and the daily routine that wraps around you and holds you back, which at times feels like a loop with no way out. The song takes shape through the metaphor of the bee: a small, tireless creature that works without rest, creates sweetness and life, yet is fragile and vulnerable. The bee only stings when threatened, but in doing so it sacrifices itself. Sometimes, even when trying to defend one’s freedom or make one’s voice heard, one gets hurt. A voice that fights to exist, fragile and nearly extinct, yet capable of changing the world if only given the chance.
The images flowing through the song reflect this tension between love and pain, golden light and deepest darkness, the colors of the bee’s own armor. They are real, lived moments in which the heart tries to find a balance between strength and fragility, between the need to protect those you love and the desire not to lose yourself. Ape is also a gesture of resistance against the cold of society, a world that rewards the ordinary and silently suffocates those who dare to be different. It is the story of blooming again despite everything, of finding one’s voice even when it seems there is no room for it, of holding onto hope as one holds a small, fragile but powerful treasure. A voice that fights, that loves, that suffers, and that wants to bloom again.
The production blends acoustic sounds with rarefied atmospheres.