[Translation.]
Song
Fame trumpets your conquests each day,
Brave Lily Victoria!
Your scepter finds new hearts to sway,
Subdues the Pacific’s wild waves,
Your foes are left stranded ashore,
Firm heart as of steel!
Dame Rumor tells us with glee
Your fortunes wax evermore,
Beauty of Aina-hau,
Comrade dear to my heart.
And what of the hyacinth maid,
Nymph of the Flowery Land?
I choose the lehua, ilima,
As my wreath and emblem of love,
The small-leafed fern and the maile—
What fragrance exhales from thy breast!
The story that might explain this modern lyric belongs to the gossip of half a century ago. The action hinges about one who is styled Pua Lanakila—literally Flower of Victory. Now there is no flower, indigenous or imported, known by this name to the Hawaiians. It is an allegorical invention of the poet. A study of the name and of its interpretation, Victory, at once suggested to me the probability that it was meant for the Princess Victoria Kamamalu.
As I interpret the story, the lover seems at first to be in a condition of unstable equilibrium, but finally concludes to cleave to the flowers of the soil, the lehua and the ilima (verse 15), the palai and the maile (verse 17), the meaning of which is clear.