Pele and Hiiaka: A Myth From Hawaii

To my shame, it’s only my voice.

The rocks and huge bowlders that dotted the barren waste of Ka-ena seemed to the travelers to glow and vibrate as if they were about to melt under the heat of the sun, a phenomenon that stirred the imagination of Hiiaka to song:

Liu’a ke kaha o Ka-ena, wela i ka La;

Ai’na iho la ka pohaku a mo’a wela;

Kahuli oni’o, holo ana i ka malie;

Ha’aha’a ka puka one, ki’eki’e ke ko’a,

I ka hapai ia e ka makani, ka Malua:

O’u hoa ia i ke Koolau, e.

A pa Koolau, hoolale kula hulu;

Kahea ke keiki i ka wa’a,

’E holo, oi malie ke kaha o Nene-le’a;

Aohe halawai me ka ino i ka makani;

Ka pipi lua o ka ale i ka ihu o ka wa’a.

He wa’awa’a20 ka makani, he naaupo;

Ke kai ku’i-ké, koke nalo ka pohaku!

Ke kupa hoolono kai, o Pohaku-o-Kaua’i,21 e,

A noho ana o Pohaku o Kaua’i i kai, e!

TRANSLATION

Ka-ena, salty and barren,

Now throbs with the blaze of the sun;

The rocks are consumed by the heat,

Dappled and changed in their color:

The sand-holes sink, the coral forms heaps,

Urged by the breath of Malua—

That fellow of mine from Koolau:

When blows Koolau, then bristles the plain.

Then calls the lad to the sailor,

Speed on while calm is Nene-le’a;

Such time you’ll meet with good weather;

The lap of the sea ’gainst the bow—

A most thoughtless, good-natured, wind, that.

When choppy the sea, hid are the rocks!

A man of the sea art thou, well versed

In its signs of storm and of calm,

O Rock, thou Rock of Kaua’i!