In plain words
The poet, of the elephant [Gajendra]: The exultant elephant, breaking loose and bearing its chain, entered the wide pool and took a lovely full-blown lotus [to offer]; and when trouble pressed hard on it [in the crocodile's jaws], it trembled [lest the flower fade unoffered] and worshipped the feet of the Lord who holds the discus. Was it not by that that, long ago, it reached the abode of the Lord of the immortals [Paramapadam]?