KAPO-ULA-KINA’U, A RELATIVE OF HIIAKA—THE MAIMED GIRL MANA-MANA-IA-KALU-EA
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Emerson, Nathaniel Bright
The fish embraced by the women folk!
Gone one’s companion, chill grows the night:
Love cheered for a day, then flew away.—
Oh Kona, thou land of peace and of calm!
Search for the hidden meaning of this oli has brought out a marvellous diversity of opinion. The chief difficulty lies in the interpretation of the second verse: Ka i’a kahiko pu no me ka wahine, and centers in the expression kahiko pu. One able critic finds in it an allusion to the coöperation of women with the men in the work of fishing. Kahiko is a word of dignity meaning finely apparelled. The addition of the preposition pu amplifies it and gives it almost the meaning of wrapped together. It seems probable also that the word i’a, literally fish, is to be taken in an esoteric sense as a euphemism for man. Putting this interpretation upon it, the meaning of the expression kahiko pu becomes clear as being wrapped together, as in the sexual embrace.
Wahine-oma’o was greatly fascinated by the pathos and romance of the situation and declared she would like to have her for an aikane, an intimate friend.
Hiiaka replied, “Maimed folk seem to be very numerous in these parts.”
The maimed girl kept up her fishing, her light-hearted dancing and singing:
Ua ino Hono-kohau; he Ulu-au nui ka makani;
Ke ha’iha’i la i ka lau o ka awa.
La’i pono ai ke kai o Hono-lua,
E hele ka wahine i ke kapa kahakai,
Ku’i-ku’i ana i ka opihi,
Wa’u-wa’u ana i kana limu,
O Mana-mana-ia-kaluea,
Ka wahine ua make, e-e!
TRANSLATION
Rough weather at Hono-kohau;
The Ulu-au blows a gale;
It snaps off the leaves of the awa,
But the sea lies calm at Hono-lua
And the woman can fish along shore,
Pounding her shell-fish, rubbing her moss—
This maiméd girl Kalu-é-a,
The girl that is dead.
As the wild thing ran from the dash of an incoming wave, by some chance the gourd that held her fish slipped from her and the retreating water carried it beyond her reach, a loss that she lightly touched in her song:
Ha’a ka lau o ka i’a;
Ha’a ka lima i ke po’i;
Ha’a ke olohe6 i ke awakea:
Kina’i aku la i ke kai, la.
Lilo ka i’a, lilo ka i’a
I ka welelau o ku’u lima,
A lilo, e-e!
TRANSLATION
My fish are adance on the waves:
My hand just danced from the basket:
The skilled6 one dances at noontide
And deafens the roar of ocean.
Gone are my fish, lost out of hand,
Snatched clean away from my hand-stumps;