J'étais toute petite Quand un grand négrier, Cachant la vérité, Me fit venir d'Afrique. On nous entassa toutes Dans une barque à voiles Et je compris en route Que j'étais une esclave! Devant la vérité Pauvre de moi, mes frères, Voyez cette misère, Horrible à constater. Ah! je n'étais plus même Précipitation, J'étais calamité Et indignation. Maintenant on est libre De tous ses mouvements, On a beau être nègre,1 On est comme les Blancs. La jambe par devant, La jambe par derrière, Nous sommes des enfants Libres et volontaires.
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Text Authorship:
- by Jules Supervielle (1884 - 1960), appears in Bolivar [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Darius Milhaud (1892 - 1974), "Mon histoire", op. 148b no. 1 (1936), published 1937 [ medium voice and piano or orchestra ], from Trois Chansons de Négresse, no. 1, R. Deiss [sung text checked 1 time]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- ENG English (Faith J. Cormier) , "My story", copyright © 2002, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 24
Word count: 89