[Translation.]

Song

At Hilo I rendezvoused with, the lehua;

By the Wailuku stream, near the robber-den;

Off cape Lele-iwi I swam in the ocean;

At Pana-ewa, mid groves of lehua;

At Ha-ili, a forest of flocking birds.

On Molokai I travel its one highway;

I saw the plain of Kala’e quiver with heat,

And beheld the ax-quarries of Mauna-loa.

Ah, the perfume Nihoa’s pandanus exhales!

Ko’i-ahi, home of the small-leafed maile;

And now at Makua, lo, its virgin sand,

While ocean surges and scours on below.

Lo, a woman crouched on the shore by the sea,

In the brick-red bowl, Kilauea’s bay.

Footnote 369:[ (return) ] Lehúa. A tree that produces the tufted scarlet flower that is sacred to the goddess of the hula, Laka.

Footnote 370:[ (return) ] Lua-kanáka. A deep and dangerous crossing at the Wailuku river, which is said to have been the cause of death by drowning of very many. Another story is that it was once the hiding place of robbers.

Footnote 371:[ (return) ] Lele-iwi. The name of a cape at Hilo, near the mouth of the Wai-luku river;—water of destruction.

Footnote 372:[ (return) ] Pana-ewa. A forest region in Ola’a much mentioned in myth and poetry.

Footnote 373:[ (return) ] Haili. A region in Ola’a, a famous: resort for bird-catchers.

Footnote 374:[ (return) ] Ka-la’e. A beautiful place in the uplands back of Kaunakakai, on Molokai.

Footnote 375:[ (return) ] Mauna-loa. The mountain in the western part of Molokai.

Footnote 376:[ (return) ] Ka-lua-ko’i. A place on this same Mauna-loa where was quarried stone suitable for making the Hawaiian ax.

Footnote 377:[ (return) ] Nihoa. A small land near Kalaupapa, Molokai, where was a grove of fine pandanus trees.

Footnote 378:[ (return) ] Ko’i-ahi. A small valley in the district of Waianae, Oahu, where was the home of the small-leafed maile.

Footnote 379:[ (return) ] Makua. A valley in Waianae.

Footnote 380:[ (return) ] One opio-pio. Sand freshly smoothed by an ocean wave.

Footnote 381:[ (return) ] Apo’i-po’i. To crouch for the purpose, perhaps, of screening oneself from view, as one, for instance, who is naked and desires to escape observation.

Footnote 382:[ (return) ] Kilauea. There is some doubt whether this is the Kilauea on Kauai or a little place of the same name near cape Kaeua, the westernmost point of Oahu.

In the next mele to be given it is evident that, though the motive is clearly Hawaiian, it has lost something of the rugged simplicity and impersonality that belonged to the most archaic style, and that it has taken on the sentimentality of a later period.

Mele

E Manono la, e-a,

Kau ka ópe-ópe;

Ka ulu hala la, e-a,

Ka uluhe la, e-a.

Ka uluhe la, e-a,

A hiki Pu’u-naná,

Hali’i punána

No huli mai.

Hull mai o-e la;

Moe kaua;

Hali’i punana

No hull mai.

Hull mai o-e la;

Moe kaua;

Moe aku kaua;

O ka wai welawela,

O ka papa lohi

O Mau-kele;

Moe aku kaua;

O ka wai welawela,

O ka papa lohi

O Mau-kele.

A kele, a kele

Kou manao la, e-a;

A kele, a kele

Kou manao la, e-a.