Interpret:

Patti Smith

Album:

Trampin'

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...
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