[Hook: Mongolian-accented male MC sings it big over the galloping war drums] Go on without me, Saaral, go on and run Hooves like a war drum underneath the sun Thirty miles of open grass and not a fence in sight Go on without me, I'll be right behind [Verse 1: Mongolian MC raps hard, the horsehead fiddle sawing under him] Summer festival, the whole valley camped out on the plain Six hundred horses at the start and the children on the reins I'm nine years old and light enough, that's why they let me ride And I sing the old giingoo to him with the dust in my eyes He's grey as winter smoke, and I raised him from a foal Fed him out of my own two hands the winter the ger was cold Then the starter drops the flag, and the steppe begins to quake Six hundred hearts at once, you can feel the valley shake I don't hold him, I don't kick him, I just lean low on his neck Every mile is his to run, I'm a feather on his back [Hook: Mongolian MC, sung, the throat-sung drone underneath] Go on without me, Saaral, go on and run Hooves like a war drum underneath the sun Thirty miles of open grass and not a fence in sight Go on without me, I'll be right behind [Verse 2: Mongolian MC, faster, the war drums driving] Twenty miles and we're in front, there's only two still near Dust behind us like a wall, and the finish flags appear River crossin' at the bend where the water's fast and wide Saaral hits a hidden stone, and the whole world tips aside I'm in the water, I'm in the gravel, I'm in the cold He's standin' on the bank with the reins and no one to hold And he looks at me one second like he's askin' me to choose So I scream it with the river in my mouth, "Go, you can't lose" And he turns, and he's gone, and the dust comes down the line And the boy who raised him's sittin' in the river, soaked and blind [Verse 3: overtone, a throat-sung overtone rings high above the whole band as the Mongolian MC walks the last miles] So I walk the last ten miles with my boots full of the river Every rider passin' tells me, "Your grey's in front," and I shiver They say he won it riderless, no boy upon his back And the old men poured the mare's milk on his head and sang him down the track They sang his praise name to the sky, the champion of the plain But he didn't stay to hear it, he don't care about the fame He turned around and walked back out across the open space Found me on the river road and pressed his nose against my face So I walk him home on foot with the medal on his mane Next year I'm ridin' heavier, and he'll carry me again [Hook: Mongolian MC sings it as loud as he can, every drum in, the overtone still ringing] Go on without me, Saaral, go on and run Hooves like a war drum underneath the sun Thirty miles of open grass and not a fence in sight Go on without me, I'll be right behind [End]
