我站在第一个白人朝圣者屈膝的岸边的标记上，在那里流放变成了祖先，感谢上帝赐予了自由。我穿过黑夜，我的皮肤是黑色的，我弯下膝盖在这个标记…我看着天空和大海。2呵，朝圣者的灵魂，我对你们说话!我看到你骄傲而缓慢地从灵魂的土地上走出来，苍白得像露珠…你们围着我转啊转啊!啊，朝圣者们，我气喘吁吁地跑了一整夜，躲避那个以你们的名义制造罪恶和灾难的人的鞭子。3于是我想，我要来，跪在我以前跪过的地方，感受你们的灵魂在我周围，随着大海的怒吼低声哼唱; And lift my black face, my black hand, Here, in your names, to curse this land Ye blessed in freedom's evermore. IV. I am black, I am black; And yet God made me, they say. But if He did so, smiling back He must have cast His work away Under the feet of His white creatures, With a look of scorn,--that the dusky features Might be trodden again to clay. V. And yet He has made dark things To be glad and merry as light. There's a little dark bird sits and sings; There's a dark stream ripples out of sight; And the dark frogs chant in the safe morass, And the sweetest stars are made to pass O'er the face of the darkest night. VI. But we who are dark, we are dark! Ah, God, we have no stars! About our souls in care and cark Our blackness shuts like prison bars: The poor souls crouch so far behind, That never a comfort can they find By reaching through the prison-bars. VII. Indeed, we live beneath the sky, . . . That great smooth Hand of God, stretched out On all His children fatherly, To bless them from the fear and doubt, Which would be, if, from this low place, All opened straight up to His face Into the grand eternity. VIII. And still God's sunshine and His frost, They make us hot, they make us cold, As if we were not black and lost: And the beasts and birds, in wood and fold, Do fear and take us for very men! Could the weep-poor-will or the cat of the glen Look into my eyes and be bold? IX. I am black, I am black!-- But, once, I laughed in girlish glee; For one of my colour stood in the track Where the drivers drove, and looked at me-- And tender and full was the look he gave: Could a slave look so at another slave?-- I look at the sky and the sea. X. And from that hour our spirits grew As free as if unsold, unbought: Oh, strong enough, since we were two To conquer the world, we thought! The drivers drove us day by day; We did not mind, we went one way, And no better a liberty sought. XI. In the sunny ground between the canes, He said "I love you" as he passed: When the shingle-roof rang sharp with the rains, I heard how he vowed it fast: While others shook, he smiled in the hut As he carved me a bowl of the cocoa-nut, Through the roar of the hurricanes. XII. I sang his name instead of a song; Over and over I sang his name-- Upward and downward I drew it along My various notes; the same, the same! I sang it low, that the slave-girls near Might never guess from aught they could hear, It was only a name. XIII. I look on the sky and the sea-- We were two to love, and two to pray,-- Yes, two, O God, who cried to Thee, Though nothing didst Thou say. Coldly Thou sat'st behind the sun! And now I cry who am but one, How wilt Thou speak to-day?-- XIV. We were black, we were black! We had no claim to love and bliss: What marvel, if each turned to lack? They wrung my cold hands out of his,-- They dragged him . . . where ? . . . I crawled to touch His blood's mark in the dust! . . . not much, Ye pilgrim-souls, . . . though plain as this! XV. Wrong, followed by a deeper wrong! Mere grief's too good for such as I. So the white men brought the shame ere long To strangle the sob of my agony. They would not leave me for my dull Wet eyes!--it was too merciful To let me weep pure tears and die. XVI. I am black, I am black!-- I wore a child upon my breast An amulet that hung too slack, And, in my unrest, could not rest: Thus we went moaning, child and mother, One to another, one to another, Until all ended for the best: XVII. For hark ! I will tell you low . . . Iow . . . I am black, you see,-- And the babe who lay on my bosom so, Was far too white . . . too white for me; As white as the ladies who scorned to pray Beside me at church but yesterday; Though my tears had washed a place for my knee. XVIII. My own, own child! I could not bear To look in his face, it was so white. I covered him up with