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In 1948 I fled my village; The Stern Gang drove my family from the landsWe ran into the desert Where I've spent these decades living by my handsLife in Haifa wasn't easy, But so much better than this hellhole with the soldiers and barbed wire And the closures and the hunger,The humiliation and the checkpoints, the machine gun fireAnd each day I wonder, after Haifa, The home that we abandoned when the Zionists had wonIs there a family with a child? Does its father love it as I loved my only sonBefore the soldiers shot him down, Riddled him with bullets in his back and in his head?Home in Haifa, in my house, Does his father know the pain there is in an empty bed?In 1960 I fled my country, Left the Tigris River for this foreign placeI had to leave home, I didn't want to, But they were rounding up the leftists and the papers had my faceAnd my son, a student leader, On the streets of Baghdad was nowhere to be foundSo I walked through the mountains, just the shirt upon my back, Knowing not where I was boundNow here I am, this town of Haifa in this little house, SongtexteBut at least I'm still aliveAnd each day I wonder how is Baghdad,Would I recognize my friends if any did indeed survive?It took a long time, but I made a life hereAnd I wish my son could be here in this town upon the shoreI was with my wife, it was the Sabbath,When an old Arab couple knocked upon our doorWe asked them in, gave them tea'Cause that's what you do with strangers, and we could see they meant no harmWe told our story, they told theirs:Us of our life in Baghdad, them of their family farmAnd of this house, which they once lived inWhere once they raised a family, long before their hair turned grayAnd of their son, and the troopersAnd of ours, whom we still cry for every daySo much in common, so much gone badSo much running and never coming homeYou can hear the cards falling down,See the faces of the children, forever forced to roamAnd here we were, in this house,Fearing that tomorrow would be just like yesterdaySo much resentment, so much at stakeAnd I really don't remember who was the first to sayIn one world,In one village,In one home,Let us live togetherIn one world,In one village,In one home,Let us live togetherIn one world,In one village,In one home,Let us live togetherIn one world Aus Songtexte Mania