And died in slavery.
The children, we, of home bereft
Like little mice ’mong neighbors crept.
Water drawer was I at school,
My brothers toiled ’neath landlord’s rule.
For my sisters an evil fate must be,
Though little doves they seemed to me;
Into life as serfs they’re born,
And die they must in that lot forlorn.
I shudder yet, where’er I roam,