Thomas Hampson

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.

Tomorrow,
I’ll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody’ll dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,”
Then.

Besides,
They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed -

I, too, am America.

Translation by Anna Nußbaum

Denn auch ich, auch ich, bin Amerika!

Once riding in old Baltimore,
Heart-filled, head-filled with glee;
I saw a Baltimorean
Keep looking straight at me.

Now I was eight and very small,
And he was no whit bigger,
And so I smiled, but he poked out
His tongue and called me, “Nigger.”

I saw the whole of Baltimore
From May until December;
Of all the things that happened there
That’s all that I remember.

Translation by Josef Luitpold

Ich fuhr einmal durch Baltimore,
O Knabenglück und Maienlicht,
Ein weißer Junge neben mir,
Der sah mir ins Gesicht.

Ich habe Baltimore geseh’n
Vom Fliedrblüh’n zum Flockenschnei’n,
Von allem, was auch sonst gescheh’n,
Fällt stets nur dies mir ein