> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.opendemocracy.net/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Hammurabi, the exalted prince who made great the name of Babylon - URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/article-1211jsp/ - Published: 2003-05-08T23:05:00.000Z - Updated: 2022-03-14T11:26:02.000Z - Author: Ariel Dorfman - Tags: #en, #Migrated, #Import 2026-04-09 19:08 I bite my tongue and try not to curse you I bite my tongue and try not to wish upon you what you visited on me and mine my voice that ordered laws to be engraved for all to see and hear orphans and widows no no do not place that curse upon him they say to me they say to Hammurabi the protecting King those who accompany me in the green dark of death that is not what we do in the green dark of death my [code](http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/medieval/hamframe.htm?ref=opendemocracy.net) even slaves had rights even women cast out by their husbands adopted sons prostitutes patients even the oxen in the fields builders barbers sailors they all had rights even the oxen in the fields my words that have survived four thousand years invasions depredations despoilment plunder Persians Mongols Ottomans Arabs British the first written words of history for all to know and see Hammurabi shield of the land that now lies broken shattered made dust the many words of Mesopotamia You could have stopped this Rumsfeld Lord of the Looters Lord of the Black Dawn the statuettes of birds and goddesses crushed by hammers sliced by knives the scrolls painted by these hands that surround me in the mother dark gone all gone only my words written in stone still with me here on this other side not for cursing they say to me not what we do here they say in the life after the dark of life we teach they say to me we wait they say to me clothed in green gentleness the mothering dark and yet and yet Rumsfeld Rumsfeld who did not defend the words and the widow if I do not curse you, who will? the tyrant who has fled or is dying dead? the tyrant who broke my code? the people of my earth who cannot speak for fear of the new occupant of the throne? the far people at your homeland muzzled by ignorance and dread who pray to you their protector? I am Hammurabi shepherd of the oppressed and the slaves I am the good shadow spread over the city Who else is there left to speak? If any one steal the property of a temple he shall be put to death If any one steal the minor son of another he shall be put to death If any one break a hole into a house he shall be put to death No no no they say to me we do not believe in death not an eye for an eye they say If a fire break out in a house and he who comes to put it out cast his eye upon the property of the owner of the house, he shall be thrown into that self-same fire He shall be thrown into that self-same fire No no no they beg of me not a tooth for a tooth they say He shall read my inscriptions and stand before me not a tooth for a tooth they say may the years of your rule be in groaning years of scarcity years of famine darkness without light the removal of your name and memory from the land not his children they say to me do not say it they say to me may [Nintu](http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/medieval/codeind1.htm?ref=opendemocracy.net) the sublime mistress of the lands the fruitful mother deny you a son give you no successor among men the pouring out of your life like water into the mouth of the desert nothing lower than you day turned into night If not Hammurabi then who will speak? Hammurabi the provider of food and drink Who clothed the gravestones of Malkat with green If I do not may the damnation of Shamash overtake you deprived of water among the living and spirit below in the earth day turned into night thrown into that self-same fire that fell upon the children and the books If I do not curse the transgressor I bite my tongue and try not to say these words I bite my tongue and try not to say the words that have lived for four thousand years and are now smashed in the rubble of the land that was once Babylon If I do not curse you my code and your code broken in the ruins your glory and my glory gone gone all gone If I do not curse you, who will dare? --- [Ariel Dorfman](www.adorfman.duke.edu) has just published *The Burning City*, a novel he wrote with his youngest son, Joaquín; and *Exorcising Terror* \- the incredible unending trial of General Augusto Pinochet.