Unwritten Literature of Hawaii Part 26

(Bombastic style)

Thou art Hilo, Hilo, flood-gate of heaven.

Hilo has power to wring out the rain.

Let Hilo turn here and turn there; Hilo's kept from employ, somber with rain; 5 Pili-keko roars with full stream; The feathers of Hilo bristle with cold, And her hail-stones smite on the sand.

She lies without motion, with upturned face, The fire-places pillowed with ashes; 10 The bullets of rain are slapping the land, Pitiless rain turmoiling Pai-kaka.

So, indeed.

[Page 105]

2

In Puna was I, in Ku-ki'i, in Ha'e-ha'e, I saw a wraith of lehua, a burning bush, A fire-tree beneath the lava plate.

Magnificent Puna, fertile from rain, 5 At all times weaving its mantle.

Aye Puna's a land of splendor, Proudly bedight with palm and lehua; Beauteous above, but horrid below, And miry the plain of Mau-kele.

10 Apua upturned, plod on to Mau-kele.

_Mele_

Kau lilua i ke anu Wai-aleale; He maka halalo ka lehua makanoe;[237]

He lihilihi kuku ia no Aipo,[238] e; O ka hulu a'a ia o Hau-a-iliki;[239]

5 Ua pehi 'a e ka ua a eha ka nahele,

Maui ka pua, uwe eha i ke anu, I ke kukuna la-wai o Mokihana.[240]

Ua hana ia aku ka pono a ua pololei; Ua hai 'na ia aku no ia oe; 10 O ke ola no ia.

O kia'i loko, kia'i Ka-ula,[241]

Nana i ka makani, hoolono ka leo, Ka halulu o ka Malua-kele;[242]

Kiei, halo i Maka-ike-ole.

15 Kamau ke ea i ka halau[243] a ola; He kula lima ia no Wawae-noho,[244]

Me he puko'a hakahaka la i Waahila Ka momoku a ka unu-lehua o Lehua.

A lehulehu ka hale pono ka noho ana,

20 Loaa kou haawina--o ke aloha, Ke hauna[245] mai nei ka puka o ka hale.

Ea!

[Footnote 237: _Lehua makanoe_. The lehua trees that grow on the top of Wai-aleale, the mountain ma.s.s of Kauai, are of peculiar form, low, stunted, and so furzy as to be almost th.o.r.n.y, _kuku_, as mentioned in the next line.]

[Footnote 238: _Ai-po_. A swamp that occupies the summit basin of the mountain, in and about which the th.o.r.n.y lehua trees above mentioned stand as a fringe.]

[Footnote 239: _Hau-a-iliki_. A word made up of _hau_, dew or frost, and _iliki_, to smite. The _a_ is merely a connective.]

[Footnote 240: _Mokihana_. The name of a region on the flank of Wai-aleale, also a plant that grows there, whose berry is fragrant and is used in making wreaths.]

[Footnote 241: _Ka-ula_. A small rocky island visible from Kauai.]

[Footnote 242: _Malua-kele_. A wind.]

[Footnote 243: _Halau_. The shed or house which sheltered the canoe, _wa'a_, which latter, as we have seen, was often used figuratively to mean the human body, especially the body of a woman. _Kamau ke ea i ka halau_ might be translated "persistent the breath from her body." "There's kames o'

hinny 'tween my luve's lips."]

[Footnote 244: _Wawae-noho_. Literally the foot that abides; it is the name of a place. Here it is to be understood as meaning constancy. It is an instance in which the concrete stands for the abstract.]

[Footnote 245: _Hauna_. An odor. In this connection it means the odor that hangs about a human habitation. The hidden allusion, it is needless to say, is to s.e.xual attractiveness.]

[Page 106]

[Translation]

_Song_

Wai-aleale stands haughty and cold, Her lehua bloom, fog-soaked, droops pensive; The thorn-fringe set ahout swampy Ai-po is A feather that flaunts in spite of the pinching frost.

5 Her herbage is pelted, stung by the rain;

Bruised all her petals, and moaning in cold Mokihana's sun, his wat'ry beams.

I have acted in good faith and honor, My complaint is only to you-- 10 A matter that touches my life.

Best watch within and toward Ka-ula; Question each breeze, note every rumor, Even the whisper of Malua-kele.

Search high and search low, un.o.bservant.

15 There is life in the breath from her body, Fond caress by a hand not inconstant.

Like fissured groves of coral Stand the ragged clumps of lehua.

Many the houses, easy the life.

20 You have your portion--of love; Humanity smells at the door.

Aye, indeed.

The imagery of this poem is peculiarly obscure and the meaning difficult of translation. The allusions are so local and special that their meaning does not carry to a distance.

Wai-aleale is the central mountain ma.s.s of Kauai, about 6,000 feet high. Its summit, a cold, fog-swept wilderness of swamp and lake beset with dwarfish growths of lehua, is used as the symbol of a woman, impulsively kind, yet in turn pa.s.sionate and disdainful. The physical attributes of the mountain are ascribed to her, its spells of frosty coldness, its gloom and distance, its fickleness of weather, the repellant hirsuteness of the stunted vegetation that fringes the central swamp--these things are described as symbols of her temper, character, and physical make-up. The bloom and herbage of the wilderness, much pelted by the storm, are figures to represent her physical charms. But spite of all these faults and imperfections, a perennial fragrance, as of mokihana, clings to her person, and she is the object of devoted love, capable of weaving the spell of fascination about her victims.

This poem furnishes a good example of a peculiarity that often is an obstacle to the understanding of Hawaiian poetry.

It is the breaking up of the composition into a number of parts that have but a loose seeming connection the one with the other.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BULLETIN 38 PLATE XI uLI-ULi, A GOURD RATTLE]

[Page 107]

XIII.--THE HULA uLI-ULi

The hula _uli-uli_ was so called from the rattle which was its sole instrument of accompaniment. This consisted of a small gourd about the size of a large orange, into the cavity of which were put shot-like seeds, like those of the canna; a handle was then attached (pl. xi).

The actors who took part in this hula belonged, it is said, to the cla.s.s termed hoopaa, and went through with the performance while kneeling or squatting, as has been described. While cantillating the mele they held the rattle, _uli-uli_, in the right hand, shaking it against the palm of the other hand or the thigh, or making excursions in one direction and another. In some performances of this hula which the author has witnessed the olapa also took part, in one case a woman, who stood and cantillated the song with movement and gesture, while the hoopaa devoted themselves exclusively to handling the uli-uli rattles.

The sacrificial offerings that preceded the old-time performances of this hula are said to have been awa and a roast porkling, in honor of the G.o.ddess Laka.