Literal translation
a wind fit to tear the tail off donkeys
Meaning
an extremely violent wind
Explanation
This expression means an extremely violent wind, a hyperbolic image measuring a gust's intensity by the extreme damage it would inflict on a sturdy animal. The donkey, ai, known for its toughness and solidity, here has its tail torn off by the sheer force of the wind, implying considerable power needed to overcome so unyielding an animal. This image is the exact local equivalent of the ordinary French a wind fit to tear the horns off oxen, where it is instead the ox's horn, another sturdy attribute, that gives way in the storm: both expressions share the same rhetorical principle, choosing a resilient draught animal and one of its most firmly anchored parts to signify that no resistance could withstand such a wind. The register is familiar, used spontaneously during a particularly violent mistral or storm, often as an immediate comment on outdoor conditions. The verb derraba, to tear out, to uproot, reinforces the idea of a force able to uproot something firmly fixed, whether a tree or, through this comic exaggeration, a donkey's tail.