[Verse]
I've come of the seed of the people,
Of a people who sorrow,
That have no treasures but hope,
No riches laid up,
But a memory of an ancient glory.

My mother, she bore me in bondage,
In bondage my mother was born,
I'm of the blood of serfs,
The children with whom I have played,
The men and women with whom I have eaten,
Have masters over them,
Been under the lash of masters,
Though gentlе had search of.

[Chorus]
Oh, ro, freedom, freedom
Oh, ro, freedom, freedom, oh, ro,
Oh, ro, freedom, freedom,
Oh, ro, freedom, freedom, oh, ro.

[Verse]
The hands that have touchеd mine,
The dear hands whose touch is so familiar to me,
Have worn shameful manacles,
Been bitten at the wrist by manacles,
Grown hard with the manacles and taskbook of stranger.

I am flesh of the flesh of these lowly,
I am bone of the bone,
I who have never submitted,
I that have a soul greater than the soul of my people's masters,
I that have vision and prophecy and the gift of fiery speech,
I that have spoken with God on the top of his holy hill.

[Chorus]
Oh, ro, freedom, freedom
Oh, ro, freedom, freedom, oh, ro,
Oh, ro, freedom, freedom,
Oh, ro, freedom, freedom, oh, ro.

[Verse]
And because I have come of the people,
I understand the people,
I am sorrowful with their sorrow,
I am hungry, hungry, hungry with their desires,
My heart has been heavy, heavy with the grief of mothers,
My eyes have been wet, wet with the tears of children,
I've yearned with old and wistful men,
And laughed and cursed with young men,
Their shame is my shame,
And I had redenned for it.

Redenned, that they had served while others should be free,
Redenned, they had gone in want while others had been full,
Redenned, that they have walked in fear of the liars and, their jailers,
With their writs, their summonses and their handcuffs
Men mean and cruel,
I could uphold stripes on my body,
Rather than the shame of my people.

[Chorus]
Oh, ro, freedom, freedom
Oh, ro, freedom, freedom, oh, ro,
Oh, ro, freedom, freedom,
Oh, ro, freedom, freedom, oh, ro.

[Verse]
Now I speak, be full of vision,
And I speak to my people,
And I speak of my people slain,
To the masters of my people,
And I'll say to my people,
That you are holy,
That you are a gost despite your chains,
That they are greater than those who have held them,
And stronger and purer,
That they have a deed of courage and call in the name of their God,
God, the unforgetting,
The dear God who loves the people,
For whom he died, naked, suffering, shame,
And I say to my people's masters:
Beware!
Beware!
Beware of the thing that is coming,
Beware of a risen of people,
Who will taken from ye what ye would not give!
Did you think to conquer the people?
Or that law was stronger than life, or man's desire to be free?
We will try it out with ye,
Ye that have harried and held,
Ye that have bullied and blithed,
Tyrants, hypocrites, liars!.