This paper applies the principles and concepts of the Chomskyan Transformational Grammar (TG) model to the analysis of an Ifá verse from Èjì Ogbè titled: Are lo Bedun Nle… (when the Colobus monkey had to run on the ground…).
The paper highlights ‘entertainment’ and ‘message’ as the most important goals crucial to any literary creation. In the text under study, therefore, entertainment is achieved through the artist’s employment of linguistic transformations. Some of the transformations employed include the thematic/focusing, insertion, substitution and deletion transformations. The total effect of the transformations and other linguistic manipulations is a text that is not only fast in rhythm and tempo but also rich in taste and elegance. As for the message, the artist is able to present metaphorically, through the story of Edun (the-white-thigh-Colobus-monkey) and Aaya (the-red-thigh-Colobus-monkey), the morally condemnable universal concept/practice of 'godfatherism', especially in politics and justice administration. This is revealed by the acquittal of Edun and the conviction of Aaya, siblings of the same parents who committed the same crime but got dissimilar judgments in the story/text.

Key words: Transformation, entertainment, message, standard language, literary language, 'edun`dun’, ‘aaya’, thematic/focusing, substitution, deletion and insertion.