radio baghdad

Suffer not
Your neighbor's affliction
Suffer not
Your neighbor's paralysis
But extend your hand
Extend your hand
Lest you vanish in the city
And be but a trace
Just a vanished ghost
And your legacy
All the things you knew
Science, mathematics, thought
Severely weakened
Like irrigation systems
In the tired veins forming
From the Tigris and Euphrates
In the realm of peace
All the world revolved
All the world revolved
Around a perfect circle
City of Baghdad
City of scholars
Empirical humble
Center of the world
City in ashes
City of Baghdad
City of Baghdad
Abrasive aloof

Oh, in Mesopotamia
Aloofness ran deep
Deep in the veins of
the great rivers
That form the base
Of Eden
And the tree
The tree of knowledge
Held up its arms
To the sky
All the branches of knowledge
All the branches of knowledge
Cradling
Cradling
Civilization
In the realm of peace
All the world revolved
Around a perfect circle
Oh Baghdad
Center of the world
City of ashes
With its great mosques
Erupting from the mouth of god
Rising from the ashes like
a speckled bird
Splayed against the mosaic sky
Oh, clouds around
We created the zero
But we mean nothing to you
You would believe
That we are just some mystical tale
We are just a swollen belly
That gave birth to Sinbad, Scheherazade
We gave birth
Oh, oh, to the zero
The perfect number
We invented the zero
And we mean nothing to you
Our children run through
the streets
And you sent your flames
Your shooting stars
Shock and awe
Shock and awe
Like some, some
Imagined warrior production
Twenty-first century
No chivalry involved
No Bushido

Oh, the code of the West
Long gone
Never been
Where does it lie?
You came, you came
Through the west
Annihilated a people
And you come to us
But we are older than you
You come you wanna
You wanna come and
rob the cradle
Of civilization
And you read yet you read
You read Genesis
You read of the tree
You read of the tree
Beget by god
That raised its branches into the sky
Every branch of knowledge
Of the cradle of civilization

Of the banks of the Tigris
and the Euphrates
Oh, in Mesopotamia
Aloofness ran deep
The face of Eve turning
What sky did she see
What garden beneath her feet
The one you drill
You drill
Pulling the blood of the earth
Little droplets of oil for bracelets
Little jewels
Sapphires
You make bracelets
Round your own world
We are weeping tears
Rubies
We offer them to you
We are just
Your Arabian nightmare
We invented the zero
But we mean nothing to you
Your Arabian nightmare

City of stars
City of scholarship
Science
City of ideas
City of light
City
City of ashes
That the great Caliph
Walked through
His naked feet formed a circle
And they built a city
A perfect city of Baghdad

In the realm of peace
And all the world revolved
And they invented
And they mean nothing to you
Nothing to you
Nothing

Go to sleep
Go to sleep my child
Go to sleep
And I'll sing you a lullaby
A lullaby for our city
A lullaby of Baghdad
Go to sleep
Sleep my child
Sleep
Sleep
Sleep
Run
Run
Run
Run

You sent your lights
Your bombs
You sent them down on our city
Shock and awe
Like some crazy t.v. show

They're robbing the cradle
of civilization
They're robbing the cradle
of civilization
They're robbing the cradle
of civilization

Suffer not
The paralysis of your neighbor
Suffer not
But extend your hand

written by Patti Smith and Oliver Ray © 2004 Druse Music, Inc. (ASCAP) and Hierophany Music (ASCAP)


radio baghdad