Black Woman By Léopold Sédar Senghor

Naked woman, black woman

Clothed with your colour which is life, with your for which is beauty!

In your shadow I have grown up; the gentleness of your hands was laid over my eyes. 

And now, high up on the sun-baked pass, at the heart of summer, 

at the heart of noon, I come upon you, sy Promised Land, 

And your beauty strikes me to the heart like the flash of an eagle. 

Naked woman, dark woman

Firm-fleshed ripe fruit, sombre raptures of black wine, mouth making lyrical my mouth 

Savannah stretching to clear horizons, 

savannah shuddering beneath the East Wind's eager caresses

Carved tom-tom, taut tom-tom, muttering under the Conqueror's fingers

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

Naked woman, dark woman

Oil that no breath ruffles, calm oil on the athlete's

flanks, on the flanks of the Princes of Mali

Gazelle limbed in Paradise, pearls are stars on the night of your skin

Delights of the mind, the glinting of red gold against your watered skin

Under the shadow of your hair, my care is lightened by the neighbouring suns of your eyes.

Naked woman, black woman, 

I sing your beauty that passes, the form that I fix in the

Eternal, Before jealous Fate turn you to ashes to feed the roots of life