أرق جفني حبش ونوب

أرق جفني حبش ونوب

فبات والغمض به غريب

فبات والغمض به غريب

Abyssinians and Nubians have kept my eyelid awake,

Abyssinians and Nubians kept my eyelid sleepless;

so it passed the night with slumber a stranger to it—

So it spent the night, with sleep a stranger to it.

عساكر تقدم أو تغيب

عساكر تقدم أو تغيب

أيامها نوائب تنوب

أيامها نوائب تنوب

armies that advance, or disappear,

Armies that advance or disappear,

whose days are calamities recurring.

Their days are misfortunes that recur.

أقول والصبر بهم مغلوب

أقول والصبر بهم مغلوب

واللون في لونهم غربيب

واللون في لونهم غربيب

I say, with patience overcome by them,

I say, with patience overcome by them,

and color itself a stranger amid their color:

and their coloring raven-black:

ضاع دم بينكم مشروب

ضاع دم بينكم مشروب

وضعف الطالب والمطلوب

وضعف الطالب والمطلوب

Blood drunk among you has gone to waste,

“Blood was lost among you, drunk up,

and the pursuer and the pursued have both grown weak.

and the pursuer and the pursued grew weak.”