Noho pu i ka wai aliali.
Hai’na ia ka pauna.
O ka hua o ke kolea, aia i Kahiki. [417]
Hiki mai kou aloha, mae’ele au.
Footnote 411:[ (return) ] The plover.
Footnote 412:[ (return) ] Kolea kai piha. The kolea is a feeder along the shore, his range limited to a narrower strip as the tide rises. The snare was one of the methods used by the Hawaiians for the capture of this bird. In his efforts to escape when snared he made that futile bobbing motion with his head that must be familiar to every hunter.
Footnote 413:[ (return) ] Usually the bobbing motion, ku-nou, is the prelude to flight; but the snared bird can do nothing more, a fact which suggests to the poet the nodding and bowing of two lovers when they meet.
Footnote 414:[ (return) ] E ai kakou. Literally, let us eat. While this figure of speech often has a sensual meaning, it does not necessarily imply grossness. Hawaiian literalness and narrowness of vocabulary is not to be strained to the overthrow of poetical sentiment.
Footnote 415:[ (return) ] To the question Nohea ka ai?, whence the food? that is, the bird, the poet answers, No Kahiki mai, from Kahiki, from some distant region, the gift of heaven, it may be, as implied in the next line, Hiki mai ka Lani. The coming of the king, or chief, Lani, literally, the heaven-born, with the consummation of the love. Exactly what this connection is no one can say.
Footnote 416:[ (return) ] In the expression Pili me ka’u manu the poet returns to his figure of a bird as representing a loved one.