PELE AWAKES FROM HER SLEEP
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Emerson, Nathaniel Bright
While the scene we have described was being enacted on Kaua’i, the spirit of Pele, returning from its long flight, hovered over the sleeping body at Lau-pahoehoe. Above it waved the kahilis, about it were gathered the sisters and other relatives, quietly sobbing. Though it was many days since Pele had lain down to sleep, and though they feared the consequences if she continued thus, they dared not disturb her. When that was proposed, the sister in charge objected. “If it must be done, we shall have to send for Hiiaka the beloved.”
Some of them suggested that Pele must be dead, she had remained so long without motion. But Hiiaka-of-the-lightning-flash scouted the idea: “How can that be? The body shows no signs of decay.”
The girl Hiiaka saw the messenger that had been despatched to fetch her, while as yet she was in the dim distance,—it was her nurse, Paú-o-pala’e,—and there came to her a premonition of what it all meant, a vision, a picture, of the trouble that was to come; yet, overmastering her, was a feeling of affection and loyalty for her elder sister. Standing outside the house, that she might better watch the approach of Paú-o-pala’e and be on hand to greet her, she voiced her vision in song:
A ka lae ohi’a i Papa-lau-ahi,
I ka imu lei lehua o Kua-o-ka-la—
Lehua maka-nou i ke ahi—
A wela e-e, wela la!
Wela i ke ahi au,
A ka Wahine mai ka Lua, e-e!
TRANSLATION
From the forest-tongue at Papa-lau-ahi
To the garlands heaped at Back-o’-the-sun,
The beauteous lehuas are wilted,
Scorched, burnt up, aye burnt,
Consumed by the fire of the Woman—
The fire that flows from the Pit.
As the messenger, in the vibrating sunlight, thridded her way among the tree clumps and lava-knobs, which now concealed her and now brought her into full view, Hiiaka, with gaze intent to gain such snap-shots of her as these obstructions did not forbid, continued her song:
No ka Lua paha ia makani, o ka Pu’u-lena,
Ke halihali i ke ala laau,
Honi u ai ke kini i kai o Haena—
Haena aloha!
Ke kau nei ka haili moe;
Kau ka haili moe i ke ahiahi:
He hele ko kakahiaka:
Mana’o hele paha au e-e.
Homai ka ihu a hele a’e au;
Aloha oe a noho iho, e-e!
TRANSLATION
From the Pit, doubtless, breathes Pu’u-lena,
With its waft of woodland perfume—
A perfume drunk in with rapture
On the beach of belovéd Haena.
There wafts to me this premonition,
This vision and dream of the night:
I must be gone in the morning:
I foresee I must travel to-morrow.
A farewell kiss ere I journey;
Farewell, alas, to thee who remainest!
Her hostess, Hopoe, would not take the song or the farewell of Hiiaka seriously. “You are simply joking,” she said, “letting your gloomy imagination run away with you. Who in the world is driving you away, as if you had worn out your welcome?”
The messenger, Paú-o-pala’e, when she had saluted Hiiaka, said, “I come from your sisters. They want to see you.”