From the side of the world

From the side of the world where I come from
When peo­ple are hun­gry
They say let’s eat bread
They hon­or their friends at the head of the table
Betray­ing them when they need to

If they love you
Nev­er be sure it will last
If they hate you
Only the grave is your sal­va­tion
If they don’t kill you when you open­ly blame them
Then can always wait until your back is turned

They nev­er want to see you
Become bet­ter than them
And their own free­dom
Is anoth­er’s slavery

They love beau­ty
But seek it only for them­selves
Even when it isn’t theirs
They work hard­er abroad
Than in their own coun­try
Drink­ing and smok­ing
Slic­ing and dic­ing every­thing
In eru­dite speech

Every morn­ing they cre­ate gods
And destroy them in the evening
And what beau­ti­ful dreams
They have for their children

With a sin­gle shout
You can make them fol­low you
They’ll flash you the vic­to­ry sign
And bring you down sud­den­ly
No one wants to be a sim­ple sol­dier
In an all-com­man­der army

Their sad­ness
is the muezzin’s call at sun­set
Their hap­pi­ness
a church bell shin­ing on Sun­day
They don’t under­stand
Why they feel that way
They see life as trou­ble
And liv­ing like a heavy bur­den
But their lyrics are unlim­it­ed
Their crazy brav­ery has a touch of fear
And each of them has a touch of genius

From that side of the world I come from
Men arrived late
To tame the ani­mals that lived among them

2008