لعمرك ما أعطى الرجالُ حقوقَهم

كإعطائهم بيضَ السيوف حقوقَها

By your life, men were not given their rights

As swords were given their razor edges.

وكنا إذا لم تعطنا الحق عصبةٌ

طعنّا كُلاها أو ضربنا فروقَها

When rights were not given us, we were a band

That stabbed and cut the jugular arteries.

ننادم أقواماً لغير هوادة

صبوح المنايا تارة وغبوقها

We call upon a people for no truce,

At dawn the death rattles or their sobbing.

ولسنا نهرُّ الموت حتى نذوقه

ومن ذا يهر الكأس حتى يذوقها

We do not flee from death until we taste it,

And who would sip the cup without first tasting?

وقد علم المستمرئو الظلمِ أننا

سنجوي بطوناً أو سنشجي حلوقها

The tyrants know that we will scorch

Their bellies or their throats will slit.

نُلقَّى عقوقاً من رجالٍ مبرة

فإن لج لقَّينا عقوقاً عقوقها

Cast off by honorable men, if pressed

We too will cast off, and doubly so.

أناة إذا باغ أبى أن يودنا

عليها أقمنا للعداوة سوقها

Patience, when wronged, we will not show,

But for enmity, its path we will open wide.

نزعنا إلى آبائنا في إبائهم

وهل تشبه العيدان إلا عروقها

We take after our fathers in their defiance,

For do not saplings resemble well their roots?

سنترك ما ساء العدا من فعالنا

إذا تركت شمس النهار شروقها

Of our deeds we'll leave what was displeasing

When the sun abandons the east at its rising.