When I think on the course I have run,
From my childhood itself to this day,
I tremble, and preferably would I shun,
The remembrance its terrors array.

I wonder at struggles endured,
With a destiny frightful as mine,
At the strength for such efforts-assured
Though I am, it is in vain to whine.

I have known this sad life twenty years,
And to me, twenty years it has been
Of suffering, of sorrow and tears,
Every day of its bondage I’ve seen.

But it is nothing the past-or the pains,
Up till then I have struggled to bear,
When I think, oh, my God! On the chains,
At I know I’m yet destined to wear.