metropolis m

Back in the days…
Back in the days…
They used to send one navy boat…
One navy boat.
They would defeat us with a boat.
One boat…

Today as they try to disdain us…
Well…
We crush them with our boots…
With our boots…
We humiliate them…
hhhh… (breath)
We humiliate them… Starting with their biggest
head.
We don’t care…
Oh no we don’t care.
What do we care?

When they sent their fleet to Port Said
and attacked us…
When they sent their fleet to Port Said
and attacked us…
It was us who defeated them!
1956…
hhhh… (breath)
1956…
Did their fleets or parachutes do them any good?
Did their fleets or parachutes do them any good?

They spent one hundred million pounds and they
left with heartbreak and disappointment…
hahahahaha
One hundred million pounds!

Today, they have nothing but profanities. Nothing
but to curse us.
Well, each time they curse us, we feel
important.
hehe (laugh cynically + breath)

Long ago whenever the Times would write a
single word.
One word.
The Prime Minister of the Egyptian Kingdom
would fall.
Today, when they curse us, we are able to curse
them back!
Do they think that our newspapers cannot scorn
their Queen?

Call the Prime Minister of England names? Of
course they can.

You already cursed them here, in your city…
hehe (breath)

We wrote our profanities on the walls of Port
Said.
And, we remember very well…
We recall what was written on the walls of Port
Said.
We say it again.

Your king is what? A woman!
Your king is what? A woman!
Your king is what? A woman!
Your king is a woman!
Your king is a woman!
Your king is a woman!

Of course it is possible, if it is about getting
nasty.
If it is about getting dirty.
Of course.

We are strong;
The world has changed.
When the British Radio says that Gamal Abdel
Nasser is a dog…a bastard….a son of a whore.
We tell them they are the sons of sixty dogs,
sixty bastards, and sixty whores!

Long ago.. Long ago, the Prime Minister of the
Egyptian Kingdom would fall after a single word
written in Times newspaper.

Today, Port Said made the Prime Minister of Great
Britain fall!

The world has shifted!
The world has changed!
Let them curse as much as they want
We don’t care if a state of the third degree
cursed us, because they have nothing else to do.
We look at them with pity and contempt
And we tell them, this is the failure of
colonialism!

Those who were happy last year, are now cursing
Gamal Abdel Nasser and saying that he is this and
that
And that the Egyptian people are this and that,
and Yemen is this and that…

Fine, let them curse.
Next year they are going to be in the fourth
degree.
Then in the fifth.
Sixth…
And we are going to be watching.

Rana Hamadeh

is kunstenaar, Rotterdam