1. Our words are all pretense and vanity
Our deeds are worthless and futile folly

2. Our hopes met with disappointment and dismay
Our dreams wandered into adversity

3. The air is filled with our idle prattle
Our fate controlled by random fancy

4. We said “be” but were not what pride esteems
O dream-guide, leave our slumber be

5. Too narrow for our misery this world
Truth is waning, its branches sagging low

6. The robe of virtue tattered and threadbare
The heart of Arabdom beats no more

7. Arabdom’s eyes are blinded in the dark
Caravans slowed in boredom roam

8. Hesitant, overcome with gloom
Yearning for the farthest he may rob

9. Jerusalem a wound without solace
Libya pained, the Nile weeps in agony

10. Its meadows stained with blood
Baghdad torn apart by vultures

11. Who slurred our name Al-Sana’a
I walk the edge of Arabdom

12. Everywhere defeat and misery