Elephant - Anonymous

Elephant who brings death. Elephant, a spirit in the bush.
With his single hand he can pull two palm trees to the ground.
If he had two hands—
He would tear the heavens like an old rag.
The spirit who eats dog, the spirit who eats ram.
The spirit who eats a whole palm fruit with its thorns.
With his four mortar legs—he tramples down the grass.
Wherever he walks, the grass is forbidden to stand up again.
An elephant is not a load for an old man—
Nor for a young man either.

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Anonymous (pre 20th century) Nigeria
Translated by Ulli Beier and Bakare Gbadamosi
Source: Yoruba poetry: traditional Yoruba poems, Ulli Beier and Bakare Gbadamosi, Ministry of Education (Nigeria), c.1959
This is an ijala poem - a sophisticated hunting poem of the Yoruba