Book Review: A Crocodile Has Me by the Leg

Book Review: A Crocodile Has Me By the Leg

Author: Leonard W. Doob

Date: 1967

Publisher: Walker & Company

ISBN: none

Length: pages not numbered

Illustrations: woodcuts by Solomon Irein Wangboje

Quote: “They are poems which Africans many years ago put together not as part of a book but as verses to be sung aloud.”

This post has been "in the can" for a while. I no longer have a copy of this book for sale. It was one of those books that, due to its excellent condition and historic value, I sold for $5. People currently selling it online show prices between $30 and $376. It is worth the $30, anyway. It ought to be reprinted.

The poems in this slim book are translations from various sources. Credits are given at the end of the book.

Nevertheless, a few of the poems translate neatly into English rhymed verse:

If you are hungry

Use your hoe,

The only drug

The doctors know.

Most poems do not translate easily into the rhymes or rhythms of other languages, and the translators of these African poems haven’t worked hard at making them fit; the focus has been on translating the original idea, not preserving a quality of sound.

Even as free verse, some of these poems are remarkably catchy. The title comes from a poem in which the narrator was probably exaggerating the level of stress in his or her life:

Chaff is in my eye,

A crocodile has me by the leg,

A goat is in the garden,

A porcupine is cooking in the pot,

Meal is drying on the pounding rock,

The King has summoned me to court,

And I must go to the funeral of my mother-in-law.

In short, I am busy.

Interpreting this as comic exaggeration when he found this one poem reprinted in a school reader, my brother made up a tune for it, and he and I used to sing it when we were feeling frazzled.

Do these poems really fit into elementary school readers? When I consider the whole book, I’m inclined to think not. Although A Crocodile Has Me By the Leg is a short book with lots of pictures, the poems were written by, for, and about adults, not children. There are tasteful poems about sex in the book; there are tasteful poems about death. Despite their simple language, these poems are probably over the heads of children. To adults, they seem impressively terse and meaningful.

Nevertheless, the poem about stress was certainly something middle school readers could appreciate. So, this book is recommended for the whole family, with the understanding that just a few of the poems will speak to and for each person.