Barcelona my Cradle!
The crime was great, a catastrophe all too tragic,
For a bloodthirsty god they laid schemes diabolic.
Do they really belong to this world claimed to be humane?
What rancor, what hatred and what disdain!
Their God in their minds knows no love and knows no pity,
No God of Love is theirs but a vengeful deity.
Brain-washed fanatics and radicals far gone,
They are blinded by the teachings that put poison in their brain.
Barcelona! My heart is full of pain, and is torn with bitter grief,
Barcelona, city I love who once cradled all my dreams!
Barcelona, my forefathers left Phoenicia’s coast,
On your shore they built harbors so their commerce they could boost.
After you there came Cadiz and Iberia further West,
As our ships brought culture, learning and the alphabet,
That gift to man, and taught to sail towards the far sunset.
Now a terror, falsely acting in the Islamic name,
Has set its sights on Europe from France reaching to Spain,
Set on Britain and on Belgium, and on German cities too.
Men of no brain leave their countries to murder again,
Seeking lands that they deem “Christian”, though only so in name.
By their reading of their Scripture they must murder
So that they can gain entry to a Heaven of carnal desire,
Luscious fruits and fair maidens setting senses all on fire.
No homeland have these men, of their faith they make a nation,
Their home and their hope is their world of aggression.
You people I pity, for your God you do not know;
To love God love your brother in this world that is below.
Culture and learning evolved fast in the West,
Science, vision, knowledge and all that there is best.
But you do act like brutes, bringing messages of blood,
Slaughtering poor victims in a ruthless criminal flood.
What hatred you do bear ‘against those Catholic kings!
What was their wrong and what in truth were their sins?
For eight hundred years you held down their lands
Till they drove from Iberia your corrupting foreign bands,
Sent them back to their sterile waste beyond Sahara sands.
When Europe turned west and found America new,
Made wilderness prosper where jungle onetime grew,
Then Spain rose from sleep ‘neath a sun that shone bright,
Its kings ruled the world and spread a new clear light.
To you full of hate we would show our pity and our love,
So halt your war and to dialogue now move.
Turn from your dreams of virgins and of boys demure,
Can earthly pleasure be your reward in a paradise that’s pure?
O Barcelona, with palaces and churches and avenues so wide,
Cathedrals majestic and many wonders there beside!
O Barcelona,
Your wounds to my soul bring sorrow and stabbing pains,
For your blood is a blood that flows deep inside my veins.
These killers who do evil and abominable crime,
Must pay for their wrongs in God’s good time.
Your children, Barcelona, lay on the roadside, mangled and torn,
After peaceful years at work in the town where they were born.
As they went about their business a car crashed in the crowd,
Crushing, killing, maiming, folk screamed distress aloud.
Alarm was raised on every side and help was soon to come,
Red Cross men and medics rushed as fast as they could run.
Police knew their duty and did act with skill and zeal,
And caught the men who for their act did no compunction feel.
False imams and schemers wild conceived the ghastly deed,
They sold their souls to Lucifer and laid their evil plot,
Which the Devil could not better for the horror it begot.
The victims were in number great, some from far away
Tourists come from many lands to see the town’s display.
This city welcomes all with festive air and fun,
With culture, food and wine, offered to everyone.
Catalonia has a radiant coast, from sunrise to sunset,
With all the charm that there you find, your troubles you forget.
In Europe few yet understand the Islam of these souls,
They make of it the greatest threat, a menace that appalls.
Be aware, be just, be brave, hold firmly to your faith,
Your forebears saw ahead, and acted with all strength.
Barcelona, with your Club well known, you have much to show,
Museums, glorious works of art, and industries that grow,
Speak to the West of the Inland Sea, Phoenicians there did roam,
For them you were a guiding star, you became a second home.
Rich town of Barcelona, giving light to all of Spain,
Your sons keep faith with Catalonia, going nowhere else for gain.
Danger and menace, all threats the criminals try,
You withstand them all, and hold your head up high!
French by Joseph Matar – Translation from the French: Kenneth Mortimer
