...with your bitter, twisted lies.
You may trod me in the very dirt...
...but still, like dust, I rise.
Just like moons and like suns,...
...with the certainty of tides,...
...just like hopes springing high,...
...still I rise.
Did you want to see me broken,...
...bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,...
...weaned by my soulful cries.
Out of the huts of history's shame, I rise.
Up from a past that's rooted in pain, I rise.
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,...
...welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear, I rise.