1957
Song For a Dark Girl
Composed by 
Hermann Reutter
Hermann Reutter Text by 
Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes My Dark Hands Song Collection
German composer Hermann Reutter's "Song For a Dark Girl" (or "Lied für ein dunkles Mädchen" in German) sets a poem of Langston Hughes. This song is the fourth song in Reutter's song cycle My Dark Hands (Meine Dunklen Hände) and can be sung in either German or the original English.
Text
Song For a Dark Girl
by Langston Hughes
Way Down South in Dixie
(Break the heart of me)
They hung my black young lover
To a cross roads tree.
Way Down South in Dixie
(Bruised body high in air)
I asked the white Lord Jesus
What was the use of prayer.
Way Down South in Dixie
(Break the heart of me)
Love is a naked shadow
On a gnarled and naked tree.
Related Information
Audio
“Lied Für Ein Dunkles Mädchen” (“Song For a Dark Girl”) (from “My Dark Hands”)
Thomas Hampson (baritone) & Malcolm Martineau (piano)2:17
Sheet Music