WHEN by the labour of my ’ands | |
| I’ve ’elped to pack a transport tight | |
| With prisoners for foreign lands, | |
| I ain’t transported with delight. | |
| I know it’s only just an’ right, | 5 |
| But yet it somehow sickens me, | |
| For I ’ave learned at Waterval | |
| The meanin’ of captivity. | |
| |
| Be’ind the pegged barb-wire strands, | |
| Beneath the tall electric light, | 10 |
| We used to walk in bare-’ead bands, | |
| Explainin’ ’ow we lost our fight; | |
| An’ that is what they’ll do to-night | |
| Upon the steamer out at sea, | |
| If I ’ave learned at Waterval | 15 |
| The meanin’ of captivity. | |
| |
| They’ll never know the shame that brands— | |
| Black shame no livin’ down makes white— | |
| The mockin’ from the sentry-stands, | |
| The women’s laugh, the gaoler’s spite. | 20 |
| We are too bloomin’-much polite, | |
| But that is ’ow I’d ’ave us be … | |
| Since I ’ave learned at Waterval | |
| The meanin’ of captivity. | |
| |
| They’ll get those draggin’ days all right, | 25 |
| Spent as a foreigner commands, | |
| An’ ’orrors of the locked-up night, | |
| With ’Ell’s own thinkin’ on their ’ands. | |
| I’d give the gold o’ twenty Rands | |
| (If it was mine) to set ’em free | 30 |
| For I ’ave learned at Waterval | |
| The meanin’ of captivity! | |
| |
