nigelparry.com: the website less traveled
Want an e-mail when there's something new? Join the e-mail news list today!

songs & lyrics

Treasure (Unreleased)

This is a story about a student who I met at Birzeit, who was tortured horribly by the Israeli government.


Final version of lyrics: Tuesday, December 19th, 1995


Treasure (Unreleased)

They took you to a cold, dark room
And tied you to a wall
With only concrete
Left and right
In front and behind
Above and below
So no one could hear if you called

You slept for maybe an hour a day
In the space between their tongues and fists
You learnt the lines of evil in those nights and days
They learnt what it means to resist

Al-Qaysi, I suspect that in those 53 days
Your mind went through a whole lot of things
Did he reach down from on high, lift you up to see his eyes
Did he give you the treasure that only real darkness can bring?
Lisaan at-tajriba asdaq
Experience teaches us well
And you learnt what you learnt
As you burned and you burned
But they never learnt how to make you tell

Some die to water the land with their blood
And rise again to watch over the day
And some live to understand the edges of the human land
And die and rise in a different kind of way.


Christmas 1995, Ramallah, Palestinian West Bank


RELATED INFORMATION

'Abd a-Nasser Isma'il Hussein al-Qaysi, a student at Bir Zeit University, was reportedly arrested on 10 August 1994 and held without charge for 51 days* at the GSS interrogation facility in Ramallah. During the course of interrogation he was allegedly seated for prolonged periods in a small chair bolted to the ground with his hands tied in a painful position, deprived of sleep and food and beaten severely in the chest. He was also kept in a variety of contorted positions, including being hooded and tied to a pipe with his hands behind the pipe and the palms of his hands facing outward. He suffered medical difficulties and lost 10 kilogrammes during his ordeal.

--From the "Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Mr. Nigel S. Rodley." (Reference: E/CN.4/1996/35/Add.1, 16 January 1996)


*Editor's Note: I was working at Birzeit University at the time, often with the Human Rights Action Project, and I'm pretty sure he was in there for 53 days, but haven't yet found a Birzeit reference as the university took its archived human rights information offline a few years later.



THIS SIDE OF PARADISE by NIGEL PARRY

This Side Of Paradise album cover"...a disc whose recommendation is its deftly managed intensity"

-- New Internationalist, August 2001


"Deeply moving songs... With quiet intensity, Parry gives voice to this
'invisible people' living under siege."


-- Lydia Howell, KFAI Radio,
90.3/106.7FM, Twin Cities, MN.


DOWNLOAD THE ENTIRE ALBUM FOR FREE ON THIS SITE!
search

google search

browse
home
what's new?
about nigel parry
multimedia blog
selected writing
songs & lyrics
monkey times blog
in the press
action & events
world news
documentaries
design & consulting
• First Dream (Unreleased)

• Graveyard Of Forgotten Souls (Unreleased)

• Christmas Fire (Unreleased)

• The Color Of Life (Unreleased)

• Peacemakers (Unreleased)

• All Of This (Unreleased)

• Whirlpools (Unreleased)

• Forget (This Side of Paradise, 2001)

• Too Many Thoughts (This Side of Paradise, 2001)

• Land Of The Shadow (This Side of Paradise, 2001)

• See How Both Of You Will Fly (This Side of Paradise, 2001)

• The Fire This Time (Mizna, Issue 1, Volume 3, 2001)

• I Need You (Unreleased)

• Him (Unreleased)

• Elapse (This Side of Paradise, 2001)


get e-mail news
browse archive
edit subscription

tools
e-mail this page
print this page
sitemap
contact nigel parry



The nigelparry.net-recommended website hosting service, with excellent uptime.

FROZEN MINNESOTA gifts