Patti Smith - Radio Baghdad lyrics

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 j**els 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... 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