Black Woman by Leopold Sedar Senghor

Leopold Sedar Senghor

Naked woman, black woman 

Clothed with colour which is life 

with your form 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 heat of summer, at the heart of noon, 

I come upon you, my promised land, 

And your beauty strikes me to the heart 

like the flash of an eagle. 

Naked woman, dark woman 

Firm-fleshed ripe fruit, somber 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, of the Princess 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 turns you to ashes to

 feed the root of life