Build Your Palaces (1973)

Build your palaces on top of farms!
With our labor and the sweat of our hands,
Build bars beside factories
And prisons where gardens once stood!
Unleash your dogs in the streets,
And lock us in your cells.
Deprive us of sleep
(We’ve already had our fill of rest!),
Load us with more pain,
(We know suffering all too well!).
We know who caused our wounds,
We know who we are, and we have met
Workers, peasants, and students.
Our hour has struck, and we have begun
To travel a road with no return.
Victory is close enough to see it with our eyes,
Victory is nearer than our hands.

—Composed in Qanatir Prison