quote:Why boasteth thyself, oh evil men,
Playing smart and not being clever?
I say you're working iniquity to achieve vanity, yeah,
But the goodness of JAH JAH endureth forever.
If you are the big tree,
We are the small axe.
Sharpened to cut you down,
Ready to cut you down.
These are the words of my master.
Keep on telling me
No weak heart shall prosper,
Oh, no they can't.
And whosoever diggeth a pit, Lord,
Shall fall in it, shall fall in it.
Whosoever diggeth a pit shall bury in it,
Shall bury in it.
If you are the big tree,
We are the small axe
Sharpened to cut you down,
Ready to cut you down.
And whosoever diggeth a pit shall fall in it, fall in it.
Whosoever diggeth a pit shall bury in it, shall bury in it.
If you have a big tree,
We have a small axe
Ready to cut you down,
Sharpened to cut you down.
If you are the big tree,
we are the small axe
Ready to cut you down,
Sharpened to cut you down.
Not only is "Small Axe" intended as a warning to oppressors everywhere that the people of the Third World will one day cut them down to size, but it is also a bit of bravado that had a particular application to the Jamaican recording industry. When the song was originally written by Marley and noted Kingston producer Lee Perry, it referred to "the Big T'ree," the island's dictatorial record company triumvirate-Dynamic, Federal and Studio One.
And the central image of tree-felling, accompanied by the excuse that it is being done according to the wishes of a superior, is a sober throwback to the old plantation-era pecking order, when slaves who were ordered to topple the island's gigantic silk-cotton trees, which they held sacred, would sprinkle some rum on the roots of the trunks and sing a woeful song. This was done to assure the spirits lurking within that this destruction was not the slaves' idea, but rather the will of their masters.
