Jacob Show

Ay, Ay, Ay de la Grifa Negra

Ay, Ay, Ay de la Grifa Negra by Julia de Burgos http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~latincul/burgos.html
read by Glaisma Pérez-Silva



English version

Ay, ay, ay, that am kinky-haired and pure black kinks in my hair, Kafir in my lips; and my flat nose Mozambiques.
Black of pure tint, I cry and laugh the vibration of being a black statue; a chunk of night, in which my white teeth are lightning; and to be a black vine which entwines in the black and curves the black nest in which the raven lies. Black chunk of black in which I sculpt myself, ay, ay, ay, my statue is all black.
They tell me that my grandfather was the slave for whom the master paid thirty coins. Ay, ay, ay, that the slave was my grandfather is my sadness, is my sadness. If he had been the master it would be my shame: that in men, as in nations, if being the slave is having no rights being the master is having no conscience.
Ay, ay, ay wash the sins of the white King in forgiveness black Queen.
Ay, ay, ay, the race escapes me and buzzes and flies toward the white race, to sink in its clear water; or perhaps the white will be shadowed in the black.
Ay, ay, ay my black race flees and with the white runs to become bronzed; to be one for the future, fraternity of America!

Spanish verison

Ay ay ay, que soy grifa y pura negra;grifería en mi pelo, cafrería en mis labios;y mi chata nariz mozambiquea.
Negra de intacto tinte, lloro y ríola vibración de ser estatua negra;de ser trozo de noche,en que mis blancos dientes relampaguean;y ser negro bejucoque a lo negro se enreday comba el negro nidoen que el cuervo se acuesta.Negro trozo de negro en que me esculpo,ay ay ay, que mi estatua es toda negra.
Dícenme que mi abuelo fue el esclavopor quien el amo dio treinta monedas.Ay ay ay, que el esclavo fue mi abueloes mi pena, es mi pena.Si hubiera sido el amo,sería mi vergüenza;que en los hombres, igual que en las naciones,si el ser el siervo es no tener derechos,el ser el amo es no tener conciencia.
Ay ay ay, los pecados del rey blancolávelos en perdón la reina negra.Ay ay ay, que la raza se me fugay hacia la raza blanca zumba y vuelahundirse en su agua clara;tal vez si la blanca se ensombrará en la negra.
Ay ay ay, que mi negra raza huyey con la blanca corre a ser trigueña;¡a ser la del futuro,fraternidad de América!


Poetic Devices (Vocabularies)

explanation:
Kafir or Kaffir: Used especially in southern Africa as an insulting term for a Black person.

Mozambique: A country of southeast Africa. Inhabited by Bantu peoples from the 1st century A.D., the coast was settled by Arab traders beginning in the 8th century.

posted by Jacob Chen @ 10:41 PM