The Beginning?

“The Woman's Voice” raises it to the Arab peoples.

Shroud him
and bury him
and lodge him
in the deep pit of the grave.
And go your way — do not mourn him, for he is
a dead people that will not wake.

*

They humbled him,
they killed him,
they loaded upon him
more than he could bear.
He has borne humiliation with patience
for ages — in humiliation he is long-practiced.

*

Honor violated,
land plundered,
men hanged —
none of it stirred his anger.
Why then shed tears for nothing?
The log of firewood does not come to life.

*

No, by my Lord,
a people
without a heart
has nothing from its rising but death.
So let history fold up
the record of weakness and close out its books!

*

Many a vengeance,
many a shame,
many a fire
has stirred the heart of the coward.
All of this is in us — and yet
nothing has been stirred but the tongue!