[Translation.]
Song
Comrade mine in the robe-stripping gusts of Lalau,
On the up-piled beetling cliffs of Makua,
The ladder... is taken away... it is gone!
Your way is cut off, my man!
With you I’ve backed the uhu of Maka-pu’u,
Tugging them up the steeps of Point-o’-woods,
A cliff that stands fatherless, even as
Sheer stands the pali of Ula-mao—
And thus... you are lost!
This is but a fragment of the song which Hiiaka pours out in her efforts to calm the fateful storm which she saw piling up along the horizon. The situation was tragic. Hiiaka, daring fate, defying the dragons and monsters of the primeval world, had made the journey to Kauai, had snatched away from death the life of Lohiau and with incredible self-denial was escorting the rare youth to the arms of her sister, whose jealousy she knew to be quick as the lightning, her vengeance hot as the breath of the volcano, and now she saw this featherhead, with monstrous ingratitude, dallying with fate, calling down upon the whole party the doom she alone could appreciate, all for the smile of a siren whose charms attracted him for the moment; but, worst of all, her heart condemned her as a traitress—she loved him.
Hiiaka held the trick-card and she won; by her miraculous power she kept the game in her own hands and foiled the hopes of the lovers.
Mele
Ula ka lani ia Kanaloa, [472]
Ula ma’ema’e ke ahi a ke A’e-loa. [473]
Pohina iluna i ke ao makani,
Naue pu no i ka ilikai o Makahana-loa, [474]
Makemake i ka ua lihau. [475]
Aohe hana i koe a Ka-wai-loa; [476]
Noho a ka li’u-lá i ke kula.
I kula oe no ka makemake, a hiki iho,
I hoa hula no ka la le’ale’a,
I noho pu me ka uahi pohina. [477]
Hina oe i ka Naulu, [478] noho pu me ka Inuwai. [479]
Akahi no a pumehana ka hale, ua hiki oe:
Ma’ema’e ka luna i Haupu. [480]
Upu ka makemake e ike ia Ka-ala.
He ala ka makemake e ike ia Lihu’e; [481]
Ku’u uka ia noho ia Halemano. [482]
Maanei oe, pale oe, pale au,
Hana ne’e ke kikala i ka ha’i keiki.
Hai’na ka manao—noho i Waimea,
Hoonu’u pu i ka i’a ku o ka aina. [483]
E kala oe a kala au a kala ia Ku, Ahuena. [484]
Footnote 472:[ (return) ] Kanaloa. One of the four great gods of the Hawaiians, here represented as playing the part of Phoebus Apollo.
Footnote 473:[ (return) ] A’e-loa. The name of a wind whose blowing was said to be favorable to the fisherman in this region.
Footnote 474:[ (return) ] Makahana-loa, A favorite fishing ground. The word ilikai (“skin of the sea”) graphically depicts the calm of the region. In the translation the name aforementioned has been shortened to Kahana.
Footnote 475:[ (return) ] Lihau. A gentle rain that was considered favorable to the work of the fisherman.
Footnote 476:[ (return) ] Ka-wai-loa. A division of Waialua, here seemingly used to mean the farm.
Footnote 477:[ (return) ] Uahi pohina. Literally gray-headed smoke. It is said that when studying together the words of the mele the pupils and the kumu would often gather about a fire, while the teacher recited and expounded the text. There is a possible allusion to this in the mention of the smoke.
Footnote 478:[ (return) ] Naulu. A wind.
Footnote 479:[ (return) ] Inu-wai. A wind that dried up vegetation, here indicating thirst.
Footnote 480:[ (return) ] Haupu. A mountain on Kauai, sometimes visible on Oahu in clear weather. (See note c, p. 229, on Haupu.)
Footnote 481:[ (return) ] Lihu’e. A beautiful and romantic region nestled, as the Hawaiians say, “between the thighs of the mountain,” Mount Kaala.
Footnote 482:[ (return) ] Hale-mano. Literally the multitude of houses; a sylvan region bound to the southwestern flank of the Konahuanui range of mountains, a region of legend and romance, since the coming of the white man given over to the ravage and desolation that follow the free-ranging of cattle and horses, the vaquero, and the abusive use of fire and ax by the woodman.
Footnote 483:[ (return) ] I’a ku o ka aina. Fish common to a region; in this place it was probably the kala, which word is found in the next line, though in a different sense. Here the expression is doubtless a euphemism for dalliance.
Footnote 484:[ (return) ] Ku, Ahuena. At Waimea, Oahu, stood two rocks on the opposite bluffs that sentineled the bay. These rocks were said to represent respectively the gods Ku and Ahuena, patrons of the local fishermen.