The Song of the Camels

Lyrics

Not born to the forest are we Not born to the plain To the grass and the shadowed tree And the splashing of rain Only the sand we know And the cloudless sky The mirage and the deep-sunk well And stars on high To the sound of our bells we came With huge soft stride Kings riding upon our backs And the slaves at our side Out of the East drawn on By a dream and a star Seeking the hills and the groves Where the fixed towns are Our goal was no palace gate No temple of old But a child in his mother's lap In the cloudy cold Thе olives were windy and whitе Dust swirled through the town As all in their royal robes Our masters knelt down Then back to the desert we paced In our phantom state And faded again in the sands That are secret as fate Portents of glory and danger Our dark shadows lay At the feet of the babe in the manger And then drifted away