In the darkness that surrounds you let the whips and fists hold sway,
Cherish faithfully within you promise of a brighter day,
All your thoughts should be united in one firm determined whole,
All your strengths should be collected to attain the final goal.
Soon, free mankind will be brothers, slaves will drop their clanging chains
Once again our flag will flutter high above the sunlit plains.
****
Well then, break the dam e’er tight’ning,
Storms that swell my chest with wrong,
Thoughts that, with the speed of lightning,
Criss-cross through my soul so long.
Flames of shame and winds of anger,
From their lazy dreams and languor,
Stir to life, my plaintive song . . .
For my songs were not inspired
In a nest of fragrant tresses,
Nor by maidens I desired,
Dreaming in my warm caresses.
Through a weary head they glittered,
When, by haughty fists embittered,
My cheeks flushed with blood’s excesses.
Yes, from gall and blood and tears,
They were born in time of woe,
When I saw, through darkened years,
My kin tortured by our foe.
And in vain my teeth I ground
When the jailers I had found
Laughing at our helpless throe.
****
By a slave I was begot,
A slave, my mother’s lot.
My childhood’s sole delight
Was the lullaby of chains.
And all through life, I found
The rusty metal’s sound
Clanging from morn ’till night,
Across my life’s bare plains.
As soon as growing strength
My youthful nape had bent,
They fastened round my neck
A yoke of cold-blue steel.
I stooped beneath the grip
To kiss the headman’s whip,
And my forehead at his beck
Against the ground would reel.
100
