1. For you are the tents and the lightning,
The white, rain-laden clouds and the palace of lofty balconies,

2. Of plastered brick and the palms, stripped and pruned.
The flood with Al-Ahsa' and the small delectable things,

3. A sa' and little more,
All of Dhaileb, and the desert-dwellers, too,

4. From 'An and set free;
And in the troubled darkness of the new-born camel,

5. It is so obscured, it seems afire,
So if you live, our spears will pierce

6. The strangled foe or him whose life's for hire.
Time's wrongs, the raids, and misery's flames

7. Have left us naked, tasks undone, unmet;
Stripped bare, the houses' hangings torn away

8. And smeared with dung, defiled, spoiled in every way,
Dead skulls, dried up, picked clean,

9. Their tongues, once bridges silver-set.
And eggs and arrows! Their herd's tale's told

10. By necks tied fast in nooses, uncontrolled ;
And we'll rebel, using the swords we wield :

11. In them for us a pillar and a shield ;
While Zawra', famed for lions, we'll protect ;

12. About her margins vultures wheel and turn,
And if you're frightened, us you will discern,

13. Both companies and lancers, full of zeal,
No blaming lions while you are their shield

14. And tyranny's confined within the shacks
Of the houses - darkest night that nothing lacks!