HIPPOPOTAMUS SONG
(Flanders / Swann)
Flanders & Swann


A bold hippopotamus was standing one day
On the banks of the cool Shalimar
He gazed at the bottom as it peacefully lay
By the light of the evening star
Away on a hilltop sat combing her hair
His fair hippopotamine maid
The hippo-pot-amus was no ignoramus
And sang her this sweet serenade

(Chorus – four lines)
Mud, mud, glorious mud
Nothing quite like it for cooling the blood
So follow me, follow / down to the hollow
And there let us wallow in glorious mud

The fair hippopotama he aimed to entice
>From here seen on the hilltop above
As she had not got a ma to give her advice
Came tip-toeing down to her love
Like thunder the forest re-echoed the sound
Of the song that they sang as they met
His enamorata adjusted her garter
And lifted her voice in duet –in Russian

(Chorus – sung like this:)
(First two lines by ‘woman’s’ voice in ‘Russian’)
(First half of third line by woman’s voice in Russian)
Follow me, follow
(Second half of third line by woman’s voice in Russian)
Down to the hollow
(Fourth line by woman’s voice in Russian)
That will improve our cultural relations

Now more hippopotami began to convene
On the banks of that river so wide
I wonder now what I am to say of the scene
That ensued by the Shalimar side.
They dived all at once with an ear-splitting splash
Then rose to the surface again
A regular army of hippopotami
All singing this haunting refrain

(Chorus)