A Yorùbá funeral poem from Nigeria. Within a few lines the poem evokes the weight of bereavement, and contrasts the reverence in which some deaths are held with the unsentimentality of others.
I cannot carry it
I cannot carry it.
If I could carry it,
I would carry it.
When the elephant dies in the bush
something is carried into the house.
When the buffalo dies in the forest,
something is carried into the house.
But when the mouse dies in the house,
something is thrown into the bush.
from Yoruba Poetry
Cambridge University Press, (1970)
compiled and edited by Ulli Beier
