Songs of Jamaica (1912)
When You Want a Bellyful
WHEN you want a bellyful,
Tearin’ piece o’ one,[1]
Mek up fire, wash you’ pot,
Full i’ wid cockstone.[2]
Nuttin’ good as cockstone soup
For a bellyful;
Only, when you use i’ hot,
You can sweat no bull.[3]
An’ to mek you know de trut’,
Dere’s anedder flaw;
Ef you use too much o’ i’,
It wi’ paunch you’ maw.[4]
Growin’ wid de fat blue corn,
Pretty cockstone peas —
Lilly blossom, vi’let-like,[5]
Drawin’ wuker bees–
We look on dem growin’ dere,
Pokin’ up dem head,
Lilly, lilly, t’rough de corn,
Till de pod dem shed.[6]
An’ we watch de all-green pods
Stripin’ bit by bit;
Green leaves gettin’ yellow coat,
Showin dey were fit.[7]
So we went an’ pull dem up,[8]
Reaped a goodly lot,
Shell some o’ de pinkish grain,
Put dem in a pot.[9]
But I tell you, Sir, again,
Cockstone soup no good;[10]
From experience I fink
‘Tis de wus’ o’ food.[11]
When de reapin’-time come roun ‘,
I dry fe me part;[12]
Sellin i’, when it get scarce,
For a bob a quart.[13]
When you need a bellyful,
Grip!n’ piece o’ one,
Shub up fire under pot,
Put in dry cockstone.
- This whole line is a single intensifying adjective; and the two lines together are equivalent to "When you want a tremendous bellyful." ↵
- Red peas, French beans ↵
- It makes you sweat like a ('no'—pronounced very short in this sense) bull ↵
- Make your belly swell ↵
- Violet coloured ↵
- Until the pods are formed ↵
- Showing that the peas were fit to pick ↵
- These red peas are pulled up by the roots ↵
- In the pot ↵
- Is not good ↵
- The worst of foods ↵
- I dry my share ↵
- The usual price is 'bit,' i.e., 4 1/2d ↵