"Candida quod nigra corpora pelle geris,"
giving it an interpretation disparaging to Williams' racial
self-respect. With more understanding of the poet's surroundings it
may be taken rather to express the poet's desire to be marked as
distinct from the then condition of those who represented his race
round him, namely slaves.
The following lines especially deserve praise for the height in
emotion and manliness to which they ascend:
Pollenti stabilita manu, Deus almus, eandem
Omnigenis animam, nil prohibente dedit.
Ipsa coloris egens virtus, prudentia; honesto
Nullus inest animo, nullus in arte color.
Mr. Chinook's rendering conveys some of their stirring force, but they
deserve a better translation, and one reason for giving the whole poem
here is the hope that it may elicit another translation from some one
entering more feelingly and with equal lingual knowledge into the
poet's conception.