2nd Lecture
William Blake-The Little Black Boy
William Blake (1757-1827)
The Little Black Boy
1 My mother bore me in the southern wild,
2 And I am black, but O! my soul is white;
3 White as an angel is the English child,
4 But I am black, as if bereav'd of light.
وأنا أسود ولكن أوه !روحي بيضاء
أبيض كملاك هو الطفل الانجليزي
ولكن أنا أسود, وكأني حُرمت من النور
5 My mother taught me underneath a tree,
6 And sitting down before the heat of day,
7 She took me on her lap and kissed me,
8 And pointing to the east, began to say:
وأجلس قبل حرارة اليوم
تأخذني في حضنها وتقبلني
وتشير إلى الشرق , تبدأ في قول
"انظر في شروق الشمس : هناك الآله يعيش
ويعطينها نورة, ويعطي حرارته بعيداً عنا
9 "Look on the rising sun: there God does live,
10 And gives his light, and gives his heat away;
11 And flowers and trees and beasts and men receive
12 Comfort in morning, joy in the noonday.
الراحة في الصباح , والفرح في الظهر
ونحن موضوعين في الأرض في مكان صغير
ذلك يُمكن نتعلم أن نحمل حزمة الحُب
وهذه الأجسام السوداء وهذا الوجه حرقته الشمس
لكن يكون سحابة ,و مثل البستان الظليل
13 And we are put on earth a little space,
14 That we may learn to bear the beams of love;
15 And these black bodies and this sunburnt face
16 Is but a cloud, and like a shady grove.
ذلك يمكن أن نتعلم نحمل أشعة الحب
وتلك هذه الأجسام السوداء و الشمس حرقت وجوهم
ولكنها سحابه , ومثل البستان الضليل
17 For when our souls have learn'd the heat to bear,
18 The cloud will vanish; we shall hear his voice,
19 Saying: 'Come out from the grove, my love and care,
20 And round my golden tent like lambs rejoice.' "
السحابة سوف تتلاشى؛ سوف نسمع صوته
قول: "أخرج من البستان " حُبي ورعايتي"
و حدود خيمتي مثل حمل مرح
21 Thus did my mother say, and kissed me;
22 And thus I say to little English boy,
23 When I from black and he from white cloud free,
24 And round the tent of God like lambs we joy,
وأنا أقول للولد الصغير
25 I'll shade him from the heat, till he can bear
26 To lean in joy upon our father's knee;
27 And then I'll stand and stroke his silver hair,
28 And be like him, and he will then love me.
This is one of the “ Songs of Innocence”. It was written by Blake as an attempt on his part to help in abolishing slave- trade. It is a plea against “ racial discrimination”. He believes that people are equal regardless of their color . Despite of its political subject, Blake here makes use of two major ideas which are intermingled:
A-The Idea that to be good needs an effort, and those who suffer more are thought to be religiously better.
B-The Neo- Platonic idea that the soul is the essential of man; the essence(soul) of mankind is the same , but what differs is their bodies in which their souls are imprisoned. Once it is set free( by the death of the body) it goes back to its divine origin which is God. The body, whether black or white, is a colored cloud that will disappear one day, while the soul goes back to its creator.
A black child tells the story of how he came to know his own identity and to know God. The boy, who was born in “the southern wild” of Africa, first explains that though his skin is black his soul is as white as that of an English child. He relates how his loving mother taught him about God who lives in the East, who gives light and life to all creation and comfort and joy to men. “We are put on earth,” his mother says, to learn to accept God’s love.
He is told that his black skin “is but a cloud” that will be dissipated when his soul meets God in heaven. The black boy passes on this lesson to an English child, explaining that his white skin is likewise a cloud. He vows that when they are both free of their bodies and delighting in the presence of God, he will shade his white friend until he, too, learns to bear the heat of God’s love. Then, the black boy says, he will be like the English boy, and the English boy will love him.
A black boy compares himself to a white English boy, and at first finds himself wanting. He claims his soul is as white as the English boy’s, but also sees himself as “black as if bereav’d of light.” He then remembers that his loving mother taught him that his black skin is a result of constant exposure to the sun. The mother explains the sun as God’s gift to mankind, sharing both His light and his heat, both of which are forms of His love.
His color, she explains, is a temporary “cloud” to be borne until he can fully learn to dwell in the presence of God’s love. The speaker ends by saying he will tell the English boy this truth and look forward to the day when both of them have put off this cloud and can love one another truly.
"The Little Black Boy" consists of seven heroic stanzas, which are quatrains following the ABAB rhyme scheme. The first two stanzas describe the boy's mother and the influence she has had on his life. The third, fourth, and fifth stanzas recall the mother's exact words in her lessons to her son. The final two stanzas describe how the black boy communicates his lesson to the white English boy for whom he has a great affection.
الولد الأسود الصغير تتكون من سبعة موشحات بطولة , اللتي هي رباعيات تتبع ترتيب أ ب أبشكل القافيه . أول موشحتين تصف أُم الولد وتأثيرها على حياته الخاصة . الثالث , والرابع و القافية الخامسة تصف كيف يواصل الولد الأسود درسه للولد الانجليزي الأبيض اللذي لدية عاطفة كبيره .
Stanzas one and two describe the past; stanzas three, four, and five recall the mother's words as if they were being spoken in the present; the sixth and seventh stanzas include the black boy's words, which he “will say” to the English boy in the future. Thus, the poem itself progresses in time from a past (learning), to the present (the lesson itself) and to the future (the implementation or practical outworking of the lesson).
القافية الأولى والثانية تصف الماضي ؛ القافية الثالثة ,الرابعة , والخامسة تذكر كلمات الأم مثل لو كانت مذكوره في الحاضر ؛ القافية السادسة والسابعة تحتوي على كلمات الولد الأسود, اللتي "سوف أقول"للولد الانجليزي في المُستقبل (تطبيق أو خارج عملية الدرس).
Hints of anti-slavery sentiment and an opposition to racism occur in this poem, but they are not the main message. The equality of human beings is, however, emphasized by the poem in its depiction of God creating the world as an act of divine mercy, giving the sun to shine upon and warm all people everywhere as a preparation for the light and heat of His love.
تلميحات عاطفة مكافحة الرق و مقاومة العنصرية في هذة القصيده, ولكنهم ليسوا الرسالة الرئيسية . مساواة البشر تكون ,على أي حال شدد بالقصيدة تصوير مخلوقات الرب في العالم كعمل من الرحمة الإلهية , تعطي ضوء الشمس و الحرارة لكل الناس في كل مكان مثل استعداد الضوء والحرارة لحُبه.
The poem is in heroic quatrains, which are stanzas of pentameter lines rhyming ABAB. The form is a variation on the ballad stanza, and the slightly longer lines are well suited to the pedagogical tone of this poem
القصيدة رباعيات بطولة ,موشحات خماسية الأسطر منظومة أب أب . الشكل هو تباين مقطع أغنية ,وهي مناسبة تماما للأسطر أطول قليلا للنغمة التربوية من هذه القصيدة
This poem centers on a spiritual awakening to a divine love that transcends race. The speaker is an African child who has to come to terms with his own blackness. Blake builds the poem on clear imagery of light and dark. The contrast in the first stanza between the child’s black skin and his belief in the whiteness of his soul lends poignancy to his particular problem of self-understanding.
مركز القصيدة في الصحوة الروحية للحب الإلهي تتجاوز السباق .المُتكلم طفل أفريقي جاء حيث سواده .بليك بنى القصدة في تصوير واضح للضوء والظلام .التباين في القافية الأولى بين سواد جلد الطفل واعتقاد ببياض روحه يُضفي العاطفة في مشاكلة الخاصة في الفهم الذاتي .
The child’s mother symbolizes a natural and selfless love that becomes the poem’s ideal. She shows a tender concern for her child’s self-esteem, as well as a strong desire that he knows the comfort of God. She persuades him, according to conventional Christian doctrine, that earthly life is but a preparation for the rewards of heaven. In this context, their dark skin is similarly but a temporary appearance, with no bearing on their eternal essence: skin, which is a factor only in this earthly life, becomes irrelevant from the perspective of heaven.
أُم الطفل ترمز إلى الطبيعة والحب الغير الأناني لتصبح قصيدة مثالية . انها تظهر قلق مناقصة لاحترام ذات طفلها، وكذلك رغبة قوية انه يعرف الراحة من الله.تُقنعه, وفقاً لتقاليد العقيدة المسيحية , ذلك حُب الأرض ولكن مُستحضر من ثمار الجنه .في هذا السياق , سواد اجسادهم متساوي ولكن مظهر مؤقت ولكن ، مع عدم وجود تأثير على جوهرها الأبدية: الجلد، وهو العامل الوحيد في هذه الحياة الدنيوية، ويصبح غير ذي صلة من منظور السماء.
The black boy internalizes his mother’s lesson and applies it in his relations with the outer world; specifically, Blake shows us what happens when the boy applies it to his relationship with a white child. The results are ambivalent. The boy explains to his white friend that they are equals, but that neither will be truly free until they are released from the constraints of the physical world. He imagines himself shading his friend from the brightness of God’s love until he can become accustomed to it. This statement implies that the black boy is better prepared for heaven than the white boy, perhaps because of the greater burden of his dark skin has posed during earthly life.
الطفل الأسود يُعلم أمه درس ويطبقه في علاقاته مع العالم الخارجي؛ وعلى وجه التحديد و بليك يُرينا ماذا حدث عندما طبقه الولد في علاقته مع الطفل الأبيض .
النتائج مُتردده . يشرح الولد لصديقة الأبيض مساواتهم التي من شأنها أن تحررهم لا حتى يتم اطلاق سراحهم من قيود العالم المادي .ويتخيل نفسه يُضلل صديقة عن ضوء محبة الله حتى يُصبح معتاد علية .هذا البيان يعني ذلك الولد الأسود على استعداد أفضل للجنه من الولد الأبيض ,رُبما بسبب زيادة عبء سواد جلده الذي عاشه في الحياه على الأرض.
1- The Little Black Boy was written by………………….
The correct answer is (B) Blake
2- Blake believes that people are…..
The correct answer is (a)