After some research, I’ve found that this song is about Rihanna getting a little fed up about a guy using her. She’s been great to him and has fallen in love, but this guy could care less. Now that we know the basis, let's look at her more complicated lyrics a little more thoroughly.

[Chorus - Rihanna:]

Work, work, work, work, work, work

He said me haffi

Haffi... wtf. In Jamaican, haffi means “have to." This guy says Rihanna has to “work, work, work, work, work.” That’s a lot of work.

He see me do me

Dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt!

The man has spotted Rihanna. This is not a nice man. Rihanna thinks he's a piece of... well... you know what.

When you ah gon'

Learn, learn, learn, learn, learn

When will you ever learn, sir? Rihanna wants to know.

Meh nuh care if him

Hurt, hurt, hurt, hurt, hurting

She doesn’t care if you feel hurt, boy. She has other things to worry about.

[Verse 1 - Rihanna:]

Dry!... Me a desert him

She’s about to leave his ass.

No time to have you lurking

Ri doesn’t like lurkers. This is the kind of guy that lingers even when your girls have assembled into a boy-proof barrier surrounding you.

Him ah go act like he nuh like it

You know you like it, boy.

And now you’re going to go around and act like you don’t like me?

You know I dealt with you the nicest

I put up with all of your crap and Rihanna is a nice person.

Nobody touch me you nuh righteous

Nobody text me in a crisis

I believed all of your dreams, adoration

You took my heart and my keys and my patience

You took my heart on my sleeve for decoration

Rihanna was a great GF, she even gave him her house keys. But he was just playing with her while she fell in love with him.

Mmmmm!

Rihanna watched a Tasty video on Facebook while recording this song. Hence the “mmm”

But I wake up and act like nothing's wrong

Just get ready fi...

Rihanna tries to hide her feelings when she gets up in the morning.

The rest of the song you can pretty much make out for yourself. I hope this translation was helpful to you are yours. Now go listen to “Work” with the confidence that you know what words are coming out of your mouth!