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I know that I have only exactly two minutes on the stage,
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but I request an extra minute of silence from the audience and from the panel to remember the souls of those who died for the sake of freedom in Egypt.
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Thank you
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A View over Liberation Square
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Today, bury all your old poetry;
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Tear apart all your old notebooks;
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Write to Egypt a poetry that is like her.
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Bury all your old notebooks;
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Write to Egypt a poetry that is like her.
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No silence nor silent fear will oppress her past today--
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So write of an Egypt and her people
and the peace of the Nile.
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Your eyes are the two beautiful girls
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Who decided that the fear had passed and ended.
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But the streets were playing us --
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The streets played us with cold and ice --
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And we couldn't explain why.
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But little by little, we warmed ourselves,
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And when we saw you smile, we forgot the cold.
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And if we saw you angry,
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the streets unmasked it.
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And if we saw you angry,
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the streets unmasked her.
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But our honor scorned to dishonor her.
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Do not leave them to tell you
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that I am a traitor
that I broke the faith of my country
or forgotten it.
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Do not let them tell you
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that I have become something worthless
or a puppet.
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For I am the child of your womb, Egypt.
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And to be a child of your womb is to want,
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to speak,
to choose,
And to erase.
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Silent now are the vanquished, the fearful in their cowardice,
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Because those that love have said their say.
