The Desert Warriors

The Desert Warriors is a song from the Season 2 soundtrack of The Wheel of Time television series.

Lyrics

Verse 1

Old Tongue

difrol sa nush

siswai sa sovin

wapro ost cheta

vaka'dar sa xentro

Official English

Deep in the wastes

Spear firm in hand

Cover their face

Move through the sand

Literal Translation

waste, in deep

spear in hands

cover on face

move forward in sand

Notes

This song uses vaka'dar frequently, apparently a contraction of vakar dar, "forward move". The Aiel are known for moving extremely fast on foot, so this term may imply a certain speed or urgency to motion as opposed to strictly a direction.

Chorus

Old Tongue

danila vakar

ji'e'toh

hei vaka'dar

ji'e'toh

Official English

Keep moving

Ji'e'toh

Always moving

Ji'e'toh

Literal Translation

keep moving

ji'e'toh

always moving forward

ji'e'toh

Notes

No additional notes for this section.

Verse 2

Old Tongue

sein vakar sa zamon

culieb losyngyae

man meradula

vaka'dar vid tsingu

Official English

They move in the shade (of)

A forgotten past,

Forgoing the blade,

They fight to the last,

Literal Translation

they move in darkness

past forgotten

blade forgoing

move forward with honor

Notes

Here we see "man" used bare, instead of manshima or mandarb. Likely a melodic choice, but Old Tongue also frequently contracts words in this way. Meradula seems to mean "forgoing", connecting to mera (without).

Notably, the literal meaning of the last line is fairly different from the official English.

Verse 3

Old Tongue

baltan qis'cuendillar

siswai hama balfrait

al'dai sa corda

ji'e'toh

Official English

Hearts hard as stone

The fierce warriors

The battle in their bones

Ji'e'toh

Literal Translation

hearts like cuendillar

brave spear dancers

the battle in (their) core

ji'e'toh

Notes

Qis is not found elsewhere; it seems to be a comparative in the vein of "as" or "like", similar to sene.