White eggs in the bush

The blue cuckoo

lays white eggs in the bush.

When war captures the town

the blue cuckoo cries:

“Kill twenty, kill twenty!”

The red-bellied coucal cries:

“Kill thirty, kill thirty!”

Then death will not fail to come,

then death will not fail to come.

When men begin war,

the blue cuckoo cries:

“Fools, fools!”

The red-bellied coucal cries:

“The world is spoiled,

the world is spoiled!”

Then death cannot fail to come,

then death cannot fail to come.

from _Blue Cuckoo - Hunter Poems of the Yoruba_,

trans. by Ulli Beier