WE

The Negro Speaks of Rivers

英美文学诗歌经典选段

极难 1942

兰斯顿·休斯（1902—1967）在美国文坛，尤其是黑人文学方面，是一个举足轻重的人物。他写过小说、戏剧、散文、历史、传记等各种文体的作品，还把西班牙文和法文的诗歌翻译成英文，甚至编辑过其他黑人作家的文选，但他主要以诗歌著称，被誉为“黑人民族的桂冠诗人”。他18岁时创作的“The Negro Speaks of Rivers”算是他的成名作。刚刚获得解放的黑人在这个时期重在言志，以真情打动人，而非以花哨的言辞。

The Negro Speaks of Rivers

Langston Hughes

I've known rivers:

I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the

flow of human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.

I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.

I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.

I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln

went down to New Orleans, and I've seen its muddy

bosom turn all golden in the sunset.