Kwam vanmorgen plots terug. We hoorden het op de radio op onze heenreis, naar Portu-gal, late herinnering nog. Ik hoorde dan pas voor het eerst de tekst, als kind greep me de mooie melodie, die diepe stem...
Of voelde de ziel toen toch al wat de geest niet vatten kon?
Tell me said the elephant
Tell me brothers if you can
Why all the world is full of creatures
Yet we grow in fear of man
Tell me said the elephant
Tell me why this has to be
We have to run from man the hunter
Never safe and never free
People kill without regret
Although they fly by jumbo-jet
Let the world of man remember
Let the children not forget
Gentle is the elephant
Pulling loads and everything
We love to hear the children laughing
When we're in the circus-ring
Happy was the elephant
Happy was his jungle life
And then they came, the cruel hunters
With their rifle and the knives
Listen, please listen, said the elephant
If we want the world we know, to stay alife
Then man and beast, we must work together
And together we will survive
Listen said the elephant
It is conservation time
So take the warning when we trumpet
For the future of mankind
