[...LANGSTON HUGHES...]

The negro speaks of rivers

I've know rivers:
I've know 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 Mississipi when Abe Lincoln
went down to New Orleans*, and I've seen its muddy
bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

I've know rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

Langston Hughes (1902-1967), The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes (1994)

* A determinação de Lincoln de pôr fim à escravatura, diz-se, terá começado quando, ainda jovem, visitou Nova Orleães pela primeira vez. [aqui]