[Translation.]
Song
Look forth, god Ku, look forth!
Huh! Ku is blear-eyed!
Aye, weave now the wreath—
A wreath for the dog Pua-lena;
A hala plume for Kahili,
Choice garlands from Niho-kú.
There was a scurry of clouds, earth groaned;
The sound of your baying reached
Hawaii the verdant, the pet of the gods;
A portent was seen in the heavens.
You were kept in a cradle of gourd,
Water-gourd of the witch Kilioe,
Who haunted the cliffs of Haena—
The fiery blasts of the crater
Touch not Kamoho-alii’s cliff.
Your travel reaches Waipi’o,
The sacred cliff of god Kane.
Sleep fled the bed of the king
At the din of the conch Kiha-pú.
The king was tormented, depressed;
His messenger sped on his way;
Found help from Kauai of Máno—
The marvelous foster child,
By Waiuli, Kahuli, upreared;
Your answer, a-o-a, a-o-a!—
’Twas thus Kauahoa made ready betimes,
That hero of old Hanalei—
“Strike home! then sleep at midday!”
“God fend a war between kindred!”
One flower all other surpasses;
Twine with it a wreath of kai-o’e,
A chaplet to crown Pua-lena.
My labor now has its reward,
The doorsill of Pa-ka’a-lana.
My heart leaps up in great cheer;
The bay of the dog greets my ear,
It reaches East Cape by the sea,
Where Puna gave refuge to thee,
Till came the king’s herald, hot-foot,
And quaffed the awa’s tree-grown root.
A-o-a, a-o-a, he, he, hene!
The problem to be solved by the translator of this peculiar mele is a difficult one. It involves a constant readjustment of the mental standpoint to meet the poet’s vagrant fancy, which to us seems to occupy no consistent point of view. If this difficulty arises from the author’s own lack of insight, he can at least absolve himself from the charge of negligence and lack of effort to discover the standpoint that shall give unity to the whole composition; and can console himself with the reflection that no native Hawaiian scholar with whom he has conferred has been able to give a key to the solution of this problem. In truth, the native Hawaiian scholars of to-day do not appreciate as we do the necessity of holding fast to one viewpoint. They seem to be willing to accept with gusto any production of their old-time singers, though they may not be able to explain them, and though to us, in whose hearts the songs of the masters ever make music, they may seem empty riddles.
The solution of this problem here furnished is based on careful study of the text and of the allusions to tradition and myth that therein abound. Its expression in the translation has rendered necessary occasional slight departures from absolute literalness, and has involved the supplying of certain conjunctive and explanatory words and phrases of which the original, it is true, gives no hint, but without which the text would be meaningless.
One learned Hawaiian with whom the author has enjoyed much conference persists in taking a most discouraging and pessimistic view of this mele. It is gratifying to be able to differ from him in this matter and to be able to sustain one’s position by the consenting opinion of other Hawaiians equally accomplished as the learned friend just referred to.
The incidents in the story of Puapua-lenalena alluded to in the mele do not exactly chime with any version of the legend met with. That is not strange. Hawaiian legends of necessity had many variants, especially where, as in this case, the adventures of the hero occurred in part on one and in part on another island. The author’s knowledge of this story is derived from various independent sources, mainly from a version given to his brother, Joseph S. Emerson, who took it down from the words of an intelligent Hawaiian youth of Kohala.
English literature, so far as known to the author, does not furnish any example that is exactly comparable to or that will serve as an illustration of this nonterminal rhyme, which abounds in Hawaiian poetry. Perhaps the following will serve the purpose of illustration:
’Twas the swine of Gadara, fattened on mast.
The mast-head watch of a ship was the last
To see the wild herd careering past,
Or such a combination as this:
He was a mere flat,
Yet flattered the girls.
Such artificial productions as these give us but a momentary intellectual entertainment. While the intellectual element in them was not lacking with the Hawaiians, the predominant feeling, no doubt, was a sensuous delight coming from the repetition of a full-throated vowel-combination.