Songs of Jamaica (1912)
Heart-Stirrings
You axe me as de bell begin fe ‘trike,
Me Mikey, ef de wuk a didn’ like;
De queshton, like de bell, soun’ in me heart
Same how de anvil usual mek me ‘tart.[1]
Tek me advice ya, chil’, an’ as you grow
Don’t choose a wuk dat you no like: aldough
You might see money in o’ it, at lengt’
You will get tired o’ it an’ repent.
A suffer, but I t’ink it mek me wise;
It wasn’ fe de money ‘trike me yeyes,[4]
But “water mo’ ‘an flour”[5] is true wud,
An’ eye-water run too long tu’n to blood.[6]
But sometime’, chil’, you jump from fryin’-pan
‘Traight in a fire; an’, try as you can,
You caan’ come out, but always wishin’ den
Fe get back in de fryin’-pan again.
Fe lub, me chil’, lub wha’ you natur’ hate![9] —
You’ll live in misery, prayin’ hard fe fait’,
Which won’t come eben ef you ‘crub you’ knees
In fifty quart o’ corn an’ lady-peas.[10]
An’ though a feel it hard, a wouldn’ fret;
Me min’ don’t mek so, but it eber set
Fe conquer, yet it couldn’ wash away
De t’oughts dem dat come ‘tronger ebery day.
You ‘stan’,[14] me chil’? I caan’ explain it mo’ :
Life funny bad, so is de ways also;
For what we fink is right is often wrong,
We live in sorrow as we journey ‘long.
- Just as the sound of an anvil-the speaker was a blacksmith—makes me start and arouses disagreeable recollections, so does your question ↵
- Child ↵
- Scatter ↵
- It wasn't the attraction of the high wages ↵
- "Beggars can't be choosers." The reference is to dumplings made with too much water ↵
- This means that he (the speaker) was unhappy at home ↵
- Prov xv. 17; xvii. I. ↵
- Stands=is ↵
- If you try to make yourself love what your nature hates.