(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 pandanus in lava shag;
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 passion,
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 pandanus
(_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 pandanus
that grow in the rough lava-shag (_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 passion, 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 passionate episode in the life of the
lover, looked at from the standpoint of old age, at a time
when passion 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-lá o Maná,
Ia wai oupe-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-lá o Maná;
Ke poloai[196] la i ke Koolau-wahine.[197]
Ua ulu mai ka hoaloha i Wailua,
A ua kino-lau[198] Kawelo[199] mahamaha-i’a’[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 god of the
mirage, who made his appearance at Maná, 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 assertion made in this
verse. The warm moist air, rising from the heated sands of
Maná, 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
Maná. 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 butterfly 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 passers-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 manó; aohe i paina i kakahiaka o ka
manó_). As soon as the traveler had gone on his way to the
ocean, Kawelo hastened to the sea and there assumed 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
paoa_, 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 amusement 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_