Yesterday’s child has come of age
Soon she will dance
The dance of chastity

Yesterday’s child has come of age
Her stream of waste
Betrays her naivety

Yesterday’s child has come of age
Soon she will do
The dance of the calabash

The thin membrance of the calabash
Bursts on the stroke of the reaper

The thick receptacle of the gourd
Bugles with the wine of the tapper.

The gourd will dance by the light
of nine full moons
The wine will skein into five
whole folds.

Only the dance of pain
Can yield the folds
In one whole piece.

Swiftly, swiftly, swiftly, Oduduwa
Hasten mother of the gourd
Hasten to ease this dance of pain.