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, 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 that 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, 21st 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 the people and you come to us
But we are older than you

But 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 'em to you
We are just your Arabian nightmare
We invented the zero
But we mean nothing to you
We are 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, run, run, run
You sent your lights, your bombs
You sent them down on our city
Shock and awe like some crazy TV show
They're robbing the cradle of civilization
Well, 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