I’ve known rivers:

I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human rivers

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphratesp 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.

I’ve known rivers:

Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

﹝美﹞休斯（Langsten Hughes）