Yes, I am black! and radiant —
О city women watching me —
As black as Kedars goathair tents
Or Solomons fine tapestries.

Will you disrobe me with your stares?
The eyes of many morning suns
Have pierced my skin, and now I shine
Black as the light before the dawn.

And I have faced the angry glare
Of others, even my mother’s sons
Who sent me out to watch their vines
While I neglected all my own.

Translation by Marcia Falk (1973, 2004)