Unwritten Literature of Hawaii Part 48

Pomaikai au i kou aloha e noho nei; Ka haluku wale no ia a ka waimaka, Me he makamaka puka a la Ke aloha i ke kanaka, 10 E ho-iloli nei i ku'u nui kino.

Mahea hoi au, a?

Ma ko oe alo no.

[Footnote 389: _Kai olohia_. A calm and tranquil sea. This expression has gained a poetic vogue that almost makes it pa.s.s current as a single word, meaning tranquillity, calmness of mind. As thus explained, it is here translated by the expression "heart's-ease."]

[Footnote 390: _Makani hanai-loli_. A wind so gentle as not to prevent the beche de mer _loli_ sea-anemones, and other marine slugs from coming out of their holes to feed. A similar figure is used in the next line in the expression _kai pale iliahi_. The thought is that the calmness of the ocean invites one to strip and plunge in for a bath.]

[Footnote 391: _Kauwa ke aloha i na lehua o Kaana_. Kaana is said to be a hill on the road from Keaau to Olaa, a spot where travelers were wont to rest and where they not infrequently made up wreaths of the scarlet lehua bloom which there abounded. It took a large number of lehua flowers to suffice for a wreath, and to bind them securely to the fillet that made them a garland was a work demanding not only artistic skill hut time and patience. If a weary traveler, halting at Kaana, employed his time of rest in plaiting flowers into a wreath for some loved one, there would be truth as well as poetry in the saying, "Love slaves for the lehuas of Kaana."]

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[Translation]

_Song_

Precious the gift of heart's-ease, A wreath for the cheerful dame; So dear to my heart is the breeze That murmurs, strip for the ocean.

5 Love slaves for wreaths from Kaana.

I'm blest in your love that reigns here; It speaks in the fall of a tear-- The choicest thing in one's life, This love for a man by his wife-- 10 It has power to shake the whole frame.

Ah, where am I now?

Here, face to your face.

The plat.i.tudes of mere sentimentalism, when put into cold print, are not stimulating to the imagination; moods and states of feeling often approaching the morbid, their oral expression needs the reenforcement of voice, tone, countenance, the whole att.i.tude. They are for this reason most difficult of translation and when rendered literally into a foreign speech often become meaningless. The figures employed also, like the watergourds and wine-skins of past generations and of other peoples, no longer appeal to us as familiar objects, but require an effort of the imagination to make them intelligible and vivid to our mental vision. If the translator carries these figures of speech over into his new rendering, they will often demand an explanation on their own account, and will thus fail of their original intent; while if he clothes the thought in some new figure he takes the risk of failing to do justice to the intimate meaning of the original. The force of these remarks will become apparent from an a.n.a.lysis of the prominent figures of speech that occur in the mele.

_Mele_

He inoa no ka Lani, No Nahi-ena-ena; A ka luna o wahine.

Ho'i ka ena a ka makani; 5 Noho ka la'i i ka malino-- Makani ua ha-ao; Ko ke au i hala, ea.

Punawai o Mana,[392]

Wai ola na ke kupa 10 A ka ilio nana, Hae, nanahu i ke kai; Ehu kai nana ka pua, Ka pua o ka iliau, [Page 209] Ka ohai o Mapepe,[393]

15 Ka moena we'u-we'u, I ulana ia e ke A'e, Ka naku loloa.

Hea mai o Kawelo-hea,[394]

Nawai la, e, ke kapu?

20 No Nahi-ena-ena.

Ena na pua i ka wai, Wai au o Holei.

[Footnote 392: _Punaurai o Mana_. A spring of water at Honuapo, Hawaii, which bubbled up at such a level that the ocean covered it at high tide.]

[Footnote 393: _Ka ohai o Mapepe_. A beautiful flowering shrub, also spoken of as _ka ohai o Papi'o-huli_, said to have been brought from Kahiki by Namaka-o-kaha'i.]

[Footnote 394: _Kawelo-hea_. A blowhole or spouting horn, also at Honuapo, through which the ocean at certain times sent up a column of spray or of water. After the volcanic disturbance of 1868 this spouting horn ceased action. The rending force of the earthquakes must have broken up and choked the subterranean channel through which the ocean had forced its way.]

[Translation]

_Song_

A eulogy for the princess, For Nahi-ena-ena a name!

Chief among women!

She soothes the cold wind with her flame-- 5 A peace that is mirrored in calm, A wind that sheddeth rain; A tide that flowed long ago; The water-spring of Mana, Life-spring for the people, 10 A fount where the lapping dog Barks at the incoming wave, Drifting spray on the bloom Of the sand-sprawling ili-au And the scarlet flower of ohai, 15 On the wind-woven mat of wild gra.s.s, Long naku, a springy mattress.

The spout-horn, Kawelo-hea, Asks, Who of right has the tabu?

The princess Nahi-ena-ena!

20 The flowers glow in the pool, The bathing pool of Holei!

This mele inoa--name-song or eulogy--was composed in celebration of the lamented princess, Nahienaena, who, before she was misled by evil influences, was a most attractive and promising character. She was the daughter of Keopuolani and younger sister of Kamehameha III, and came to her untimely death in 1836. The name was compounded from the words _na_, the, _ahi_, fires, and _enaena_, hot, a meaning which furnishes the motive to the mele.

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XXVII.--THE HULA KIELeI

The hula _ki-e-lei_, or _ki-le-lei_, was a performance of Hawaii's cla.s.sic times, and finds mention as such in the professedly imperfect list of hulas given by the historian David Malo.[395] It was marked by strenuous bodily action, gestures with feet and hands, and that vigorous exercise of the pelvis and body termed _ami_, the chief feature of which was a rotation of the pelvis in circles and ellipses, which is not to be regarded as an effort to portray s.e.xual att.i.tudes. It was a performance in which the whole company stood and chanted the mele without instrumental accompaniment.

[Footnote 395: Hawaiian Antiquities, by David Malo; translated by N.B. Emerson, A.M., M.D. Honolulu, the Hawaiian Gazette Company (Limited), 1903.]

The sacrifice offered at the kuahu in connection with the production of this hula consisted of a black pig, a c.o.c.k of the color termed ula-hiwa--black pointed with red--a white hen, and awa. According to some authorities the offerings deemed appropriate for the sacrifice that accompanied each hula varied with the hula, but was definitely established for each variety of hula. The author's studies, however, lead him to conclude that, whatever may have been the original demands of the G.o.ds, in the long run they were not overparticular and were not only willing to put up with, but were well pleased so long as the offering contained, good pork or fish and strong awa.

_Mele_

Ku piliki'i Ha.n.a.lei-lehua,[396] la; Kao'o[397] 'luna o ka naele,[398] la; Ka Pili-iki i ka Hua-moa, la; E ka mauna o ke a'a lewalewa[399] la.

5 A lewa ka hope o ko'u hoa, la, [Page 211] A ko-u ka hope o ke kolea, la-- Na u'i elua.[400]

Ki-ki'i ka ua i ka nana keia, la.[401]

[Footnote 396: _Ha.n.a.lei-lehua_. A wilderness back of Ha.n.a.lei valley, Kauai, in which the lehua tree abounds. The features of this region are as above described.]

[Footnote 397: _Kao'o_. To bend down the shrubs and tussocks of gra.s.s to furnish solid footing in crossing swampy ground.]

[Footnote 398: _Nae'le_. Boggy ground; a swamp, such as pitted the summit of Kauai's central mountain ma.s.s, Waialeale.]

[Footnote 399: _A'a lewalewa_. Aerial roots such as are put forth by the lehua trees in high alt.i.tudes and in a damp climate. They often aid the traveler by furnis.h.i.+ng him with a sort of ladder.]

[Footnote 400: _U'i elua_. Literally two beauties. One interpreter says the reference is to the arms, with which one pulls himself up; it is here rendered "flanks."]

[Footnote 401: _Ki-ki'i ka na i ka nana keia, la_. The meaning of this pa.s.sage is obscure. The most plausible view is that this is an exclamation made by one of the two travelers while crouching for shelter under an overhanging bank. This one, finding himself unprotected, exclaims to his companion on the excellence of the shelter he has found, whereupon the second man comes over to share his comfort only to find that he has been hoaxed and that the deceiver has stolen his former place. The language of the text seems a narrow foundation on which to base such an incident. A learned Hawaiian friend, however, finds it all implied in this pa.s.sage.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 38 PLATE XXII AWA-PUHI, A HAWAIIAN GINGER (ZINGIBER ZERUMBET)]

[Translation]

_Song_

Perilous, steep, is the climb to Ha.n.a.lei woods; To walk canny footed over its bogs; To balance oneself on its ledges, And toil up ladder of hanging roots.

5 The bulk of my guide overhangs me, His loins are well-nigh exhausted; Two beautiful shapes!

'Neath this bank I crouch sheltered from rain.

At first blush this mele seems to be the account of a perilous climb through that wild mountainous region that lies back of Ha.n.a.lei, Kauai, a region of tangled woods, oozy steeps, fathomless bogs, narrow ridges, and overhanging cliffs that fall away into profound abysses, making such an excursion a most precarious adventure. This is what appears on the surface. Hawaiian poets, however, did not indulge in landscape-painting for its own sake; as a rule, they had some ulterior end in view, and that end was the portrayal of some primal human pa.s.sion, ambition, hate, jealousy, love, especially love. Guided by this principle, one asks what uncouth or romantic love adventure this wild mountain climb symbolizes. All the Hawaiians whom the author has consulted on this question deny any hidden meaning to this mele.

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