Unwritten Literature of Hawaii Part 19

CANTO III

(In turgid style)

A storm, from the sea strikes Ke-au, Ulu-mano, sweeping across the barrens; It sniffs the fragrance of upland lehua, Turns back at Kupa-koili; 5 Sawed by the blows of the palm leaves, The groves of panda.n.u.s in lava s.h.a.g; Their fruit he would string 'bout his neck; Their fruit he finds wilted and crushed, Mere rubbish to litter the road-- 10 Ah, the perfume! Pana-ewa is drunk with the scent; The breath of it spreads through the groves.

Vainly flares the old king's pa.s.sion, Craving a sauce for his meat and mine.

The summer has flown; winter has come: 15 Ah, that is the head of our troubles.

Palsied are you and helpless am I; You shrink from a plunge in the water; Alas, poor me! I'm a coward.

The imagery of this mele sets forth the story of the fierce, but fruitless, love-search of a chief, who is figured by the _Ulu-mano_, a boisterous wind of Puna, Hawaii. The fragrance of upland lehua (_moani lehua, a'e la mauka_, verse 3) typifies the charms of the woman he pursues. The expression _kani lehua_ (verse 4), literally the sudden ending of a rain-squall, signifies the man's failure to gain his object.

The lover seeks to string the golden drupe of the panda.n.u.s (_halo_), that he may wear them as a wreath about his neck (_uwalo_); he is wounded by the teeth of the sword-leaves (_o ia i ka lau o ka hala_, verse 5). More than this, he meets powerful, concerted resistance (_ke poo o ka hala o ke aku'i_, verse 6), offered by the compact groves of panda.n.u.s that grow in the rough lava-s.h.a.g (_aku'i_), typifying, no doubt, the resistance made by the friends and retainers of the woman. After all, he finds, or declares that he finds, the hala fruit he had sought to gather and to wear as a _lei_ about his neck, to be spoiled, broken, fit only to litter the road (_loli ka mu'o o ka hala_, verse 8; _A helelei ka'pua, a pili ke alanui_, verse 9). In spite of his repulse and his vilification of the woman, his pa.s.sion, still feeds on the thought of the one he has lost; her charms intoxicate his imagination, even as the perfume of the hala bloom bewitches the air of Pana-ewa (_Pu ia Panaewa, ona-ona i ke ala_, verse 10).

It is difficult to interpret verses 12 to 18 in harmony with the story as above given. They may be regarded as a [Page 79] commentary on the pa.s.sionate episode in the life of the lover, looked at from the standpoint of old age, at a time when pa.s.sion still survives but physical strength is in abeyance.

As the sugar-boiler can not extract from the stalk the last grain of sugar, so the author finds it impossible in any translation to express the full intent of these Hawaiian mele.

_Mele_

PALE IV

Aole au e hele ka li'u-la o Mana, Ia wai c.r.a.pe-kanaka[194] o Lima-loa;[195]

A e hoopunipuni ia a'e nei ka malihini; A mai puni au: lie wai oupe na.

5 He ala-pahi ka li'u-la o Mana; Ke poloai[196] la i ke Koolau-waline.[197]

Ua ulu mai ka hoaloha i Wailua, A ua kino-lau[198] Kawelo[199] mahamaha-i'[200]

[Page 80] A ua aona[201] mai nei lio oiwi e.

10 He mea e wale au e noho aku nei la.

Noho.

O ka noho kau a ka mea waiwai; O kau ka i'a a haawi ia mai.

Oli-oli au ke loaa ia oe.

15 A pela ke ahi o Ka-maile,[202]

He alualu hewa a'e la ka malihini, Kukuni hewa i ka ili a kau ka uli, e; Kau ka uli a ka mea aloha, e.

[Footnote 194: _Wai oupe-kanaka_. Man-fooling water; the mirage.]

[Footnote 195: _Lima-loa_. The long-armed, the G.o.d of the mirage, who made his appearance at Mana, Kauai.]

[Footnote 196: _Poloai_. To converse with, to have dealings with one.]

[Footnote 197: _Koolau-wahine_. The sea-breeze at Mana. There is truth as well as poetry in the a.s.sertion made in this verse. The warm moist air, rising from the heated sands of Mana, did undoubtedly draw in the cool breeze from the ocean--a fruitful dalliance.]

[Footnote 198: _Kino-lau_. Having many (400) bodies, or metamorphoses, said of Kawelo.]

[Footnote 199: _Kawelo_. A sorcerer who lived in the region of Mana. His favorite metamorphosis was into the form of a shark. Even when in human form he retained the gills of a fish and had the mouth of a shark at the back of his shoulders, while to the lower part of his body were attached the tail and flukes of a shark. To conceal these monstrous appendages he wore over his shoulders a _kihei_ of kapa and allowed himself to be seen only while in the sitting posture.

He sometimes took the form of a worm, a moth, a caterpillar, or a b.u.t.terfly to escape the hands of his enemies. On land he generally appeared as a man squatting, after the manner of a Hawaiian gardener while weeding his garden plot.

The cultivated lands of Kawelo lay alongside the much-traveled path to the beach where the people of the neighborhood resorted to bathe, to fish, and to swim in the ocean. He made a practice of saluting the pa.s.sers-by and of asking them, "Whither are you going?" adding the caution, "Look to it that you are not swallowed head and tail by the shark; he has not breakfasted yet" (_E akahele oukou o pau po'o, pau hi'u i ka mano; aohe i paina i kakahiaka o ka mano_). As soon as the traveler had gone on his way to the ocean, Kawelo hastened to the sea and there a.s.sumed his shark-form. The tender flesh of children was his favorite food. The frequent utterance of the same caution, joined to the great mortality among the children and youth who resorted to the ocean at this place, caused a panic among the residents. The parents consulted a soothsayer, who surprised them with the information that the guilty one was none other than the innocent-looking farmer, Kawelo. Instructed by the soothsayer, the people made an immense net of great strength and having very fine meshes. This they spread in the ocean at the bathing place. Kawelo, when caught in the net, struggled fiendishly to break away, but in vain. According to directions, they flung the body of the monster into an enormous oven which they had heated to redness, and supplied with fresh fuel for five times ten days--_elima anahulu_. At the end of that time there remained only gray ashes. The prophet had commanded them that when this had been accomplished they must fill the pit of the oven with dry dirt; thus doing, the monster would never come to life. They neglected this precaution. A heavy rain flooded the country--the superhuman work of the sorcerer--and from the moistened ashes sprang into being a swarm of lesser sharks.

From them have come the many species of shark that now infest our ocean.

The house which once was Kawelo's ocean residence is still pointed out, 7 fathoms deep, a structure regularly built of rocks.]

[Footnote 200: _Maha-maha i'a_. The gills or fins of a fish such as marked Kawelo.]

[Footnote 201: _Aona_. A word of doubtful meaning; according to one it means lucky. That expounder (T---- P----) says it should, or-might be, _haona_; he instances the phrase _iwi paou_, in which the word _paoa_ has a similar, but not identical, form and means lucky bone.]

[Footnote 202: _Ka-maile_. A place on Kauai where prevailed the custom of throwing firebrands down the lofty precipice of Nuololo. This amus.e.m.e.nt made a fine display at night. As the fire-sticks fell they swayed and drifted in the breeze, making it difficult for one standing below to premise their course through the air and to catch one of them before it struck the ground or the water, that being one of the objects of the sport. When a visitor had accomplished this feat, he would sometimes mark his flesh with the burning stick that he might show the brand to his sweetheart as a token of his fidelity.]

[Translation]

_Song_

CANTO IV

I will not chase the mirage of Mana, That man-fooling mist of G.o.d Lima-loa, Which still deceives the stranger-- And came nigh fooling me--the tricksy water!

5 The mirage of Mana, is a fraud; it Wantons with the witch Koolau.

A friend has turned up at Wailua, Changeful Kawelo, with gills like a fish, Has power to bring luck in any queer shape.

10 As a stranger now am I living, Aye, living.

You flaunt like a person of wealth, Yours the fish, till it comes to my hook.

I am blest at receiving from you: 15 Like fire-sticks flung at Ka-maile-- The visitor vainly chases the brand: Fool! he burns his flesh to gain, the red mark, A sign for the girl he loves, oho!

_Mele_

PALE V

(Ai-ha'a, a he Ko'i-honua paha)

Kauhua Ku, ka Lani, i-loli ka moku; Hookohi ke kua-koko o ka Lani; He kua-koko, pu-koko i ka honua; He kna-koko kapu no ka Lani; [Page 81] 5 He ko'i ula ana a maku'i i ka ala, Hoomau ku-wa mahu ia, Ka maka o ke ahi alii e a nei.

Ko mai ke keiki koko a ka Lani, Ke keiki he nuuhiwa ia Hitu-kolo, 10 O ke keiki hiapo anuenue, iloko o ka manawa, O hi ka wai nui o ka nuuhiwa a Ke-opu-o-lani, O ua alii lani alewa-lewa nei, E u-lele, e ku nei ma ka lani; O ka Lani o na mu'o-lau o Liliha, 15 Ka hakina, ka pu'e, ka maka, o Kuhi-hewa a Lola-- Kalola, nana ke keiki laha-laha; Ua kela, he kela ka pakela O na pahi'a loa o ka pu likoliko i ka lani O kakoo hulu manu o o-ulu, 20 O ka hulu o-ku'i lele i ka lani, O hiapo o ka manu leina a Pokahi, O Ka-lani-opu'u hou o ka moku, O na kupuna koikoi o Keoua, o ka Lani Kui-apo-iwa.

[Translation]

_Song_

CANTO V

(To be recited in bombastic style, or, it may be, distinctly)

Big with child is the Princess Ku; The whole island suffers her whimsies; The pangs of labor are on her; Labor that stains the land with blood, 5 Blood-clots of the heavenly born, To preserve and guard the royal line, The spark of king-fire now glowing: A child is he of heavenly stock, Like the darling of Hitu-kolo, 10 First womb-fruit born to love's rainbow.

A bath for this child of heaven's breast, This mystical royal offspring, Who ranks with the heavenly peers, This tender bud of Liliha, 15 This atom, this parcel, this flame, In the line Kuhi-hewa of Lola-- Ka-lola, who mothered a babe prodigious, For glory and splendor renowned, A scion most comely from heaven, 20 The finest down of the new-grown plume, From bird whose moult floats to heaven, Prime of the soaring birds of Pokahi, The prince, heaven-flower of the island, Ancestral sire of Ke-oua, 25 And of King Kui-apo-iwa.

[Page 82]

The heaping up of adulations, of which this mele is a capital instance, was not peculiar to Hawaiian poetry. The Roman Senate bestowed divinity on its emperors by vote; the Hawaiian bard laureate, careering on his Pegasus, thought to accomplish the same end by piling Ossa on Pelion with high-flown phrases; and every loyal subject added his contribution to the cairn that grew heavenward.

In Hawaii, as elsewhere, the times of royal debas.e.m.e.nt, of aristocratic degeneracy, of doubtful or disrupted succession, have always been the times of loudest poetic insistence on birth-rank and the occasion for the most frenzied utterance of high-sounding t.i.tles. This is a disease that has grown with the decay of monarchy.

Applying this criterion to the mele above given, it may be judged to be by no means a product wholly of the archaic period. While certain parts, say from the first to the tenth verses, inclusive, bear the mark of antiquity, the other parts do not ring clear. It seems as if some poet of comparatively modern times had revamped an old mele to suit his own ends. Of this last part two verses were so glaringly an interpolation that they were expunged from the text.

The effort to translate into pure Anglo-Saxon this vehement outpour of high-colored phrases has made heavy demands on the vocabulary and has strained the idioms of our speech well-nigh to the point of protest.

In lines 1, 2, 4, 8, 14, and 23 the word _Lani_ means a prince or princess, a high chief or king, a heavenly one. In lines 12, 13, 18, and 20 the same word _lani_ means the heavens, a concept in the Hawaiian mind that had some far-away approximation to the Olympus of cla.s.sic Greece.