BLACK WOMAN

by  Leopold Senghor

Translated by Melvin Dixon

("Femme nue, femme noire")

Naked woman, black woman

Dressed in your color that is life, in your form that is beauty!

I grew up in your shadow. The softness of your hands

Shielded my eyes, and now at the height of Summer and Noon,

From the crest of a charred hilltop I discover you, Promised Land

And your beauty strikes my heart like an eagle’s lightning flash.

Naked woman, dark woman

Ripe fruit with firm flesh, dark raptures of black wine,

Mouth that gives music to my mouth

Savanna of clear horizons, savanna quivering to the fervent caress

Of the East Wind, sculptured tom-tom, stretched drumskin

Moaning under the hands of the conqueror

Your deep contralto voice is the spiritual song of the Beloved. 

Naked woman, dark woman

Oil no breeze can ripple, oil soothing the thighs

Of athletes and the thighs of the princes of Mali

Gazelle with celestial limbs, pearls are stars

Upon the night of your skin. delight of the mind’s riddles,

The reflections of red gold from your shimmering skin

In the shade of your hair, my despair

Lightens in the close suns of your eyes.

Naked woman, black woman

I sing your passing beauty and fix it for all Eternity

before jealous Fate reduces you to ashes to nourish the roots of life.

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