These are poems addressed to a beloved man o r wo man in the hope of marriag e. They could also be poems o n frustrated love, or songs in praise o f a loved one.
The following is an example of a love song.
When could thy praises be sung, Olo iltibili?
For this scorching summer heat prevents it
They cannot be sung at midday
For the sun weakens the cattle.
They cannot be sung at sunset
O, when the sun gets to that point (Pointing to the potion of the sun about 9 a.m)
Praises of he with the scarlet one will be sung.
I developed admiration for him
Not at the drinking hall.
I have stored the love of my love
Since I was just a little g irl.
I have stored it at the gall bladder
To nurture it day by day.
I dared not store this precious love of my love
At the head, for the mind abounds with changes.
It has edged between the fingers and the palm
As well as the spleen and the liver.
The love of my love has gone down
To where the infants lie.
I store it where the infants are carried
To keep it growing day by day by day.
He that detests my loving the warriors
Find one tough loathing to do.
Scrape the road with your buttocks
Until you have reached Nairobi.
Put the hyena at the sheep pen
As well as the slim beast (cheetah)
If by morning the sheep are safe
I will give up the brother of Talash
Then you can bleed the white nosed one (donkey)
To purge me from the longhaired one.
(Source: Nao mi Kupury, Oral literature of the Maasai, East African Education Publishers: Nairobi, 1983)