Tengo
I have, just wait and see,
that being black and all
no one stopping me
as bar or dance hall guest
or treading the carpet of a hotel,
shouting that there's no bed,
no minimal cell and no colossal cell,
no little cell where I might take my rest.
I have, just wait and see,
freedom from the rural overseer
who straps me up and puts me in a jail
or drags my body from its native shed
down the royal highway's helpless trail.
I have the land as well as I've the sea,
no country,
no high-life,
no tennis and no yacht,
but beach to endless waves and waves to beach,
blue and naked giant of democracy:
in short, the sea.
Books by Nicolás Guillén in ALAWiT
Tengo
Nicolás Guillén
Tengo
Nicolás Guillén
About ALAWiT
ALAWiT is a resource for readers, writers, publishers, students and teachers interested in Afro-American and Latin American culture in general, and Afro-Latin American culture in particular. It gathers book covers, excerpts, bibliographic clues and digital downloads of works by black Latin American authors in original language and in translation.
The collection is developed to promote Afro-Latin American Writers in Translation: a series of critial editions of celebrated works in translation coordinated by professor Mark A. Sanders and aimed to advance research and academic reflection on the Black presence in Latin America and its influence across the Americas.
