THE LAME FISHERMAN—HIS EPIC RECITAL CELEBRATING PELE
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Emerson, Nathaniel Bright
On arriving at Haena, Hiiaka did not go at once to Lohiau’s place but to the house of Malae-ha’a-koa, a man of chiefish rank, and one who had the reputation of being a seer. He was lame and unable to walk. For this reason his wife, Wailua-nui-a-hoano, had carried him down to the seashore and, leaving him there to his fishing, had gone home to her work of tapa-making. She was busily wielding the tapa club in the hale kuku kapa while Hiiaka stood outside the enclosure and sang:
Kunihi ka mauna i ka la’i, e,
O Wai-aleale, la, i Wai-lua;
Huki iluna ka popo ua o Ka-wai-kini;
Alai ia a’e la e Nounou,
Nalo ka Ipu-ha’a,
Ka laula ma uka o Ka-pa’a, e.
I pa’a i ka leo, he ole e hea mai.
E hea mai ka leo, e!
TRANSLATION
The mountain turns the cold shoulder,
Facing away from Wai-lua,
Albeit in time of fair weather.
Wai-kini flaunts, toplofty, its rain-cap;
And the view is cut off by Nounou,
Thus Humility Hill is not seen,
Nor Ka-pa’a’s broad upland plain.
You seal your lips and are voiceless:
Best to open your mouth and speak.
The woman Wai-lua-nui-a-hoano received in silence this sharp reproof of her haughty and inhospitable conduct, couched, though it was, in the veiled language of symbol. Her eyes left the work in hand and followed Hiiaka and Wahine-oma’o as they turned and faced the path that climbed the pali wall.
Malae-ha’a-koa, lame, guileless, innocent of all transgression, meanwhile, sat and fished. He had cast afresh his triple-hooked line, blown from his mouth into the water the comminuted fragments of the shrimps whose bodies baited his hooks and, as he waited for a bite he chanted a song (to the god of good luck) that reached Hiiaka’s ear:
Pa mai ka makani o ka lele wa’a, e:
Makani kai ehu lalo o ka pali o Ki-pú.
I malenalena i Wai-niha i ka’u makau:
He i’a, he i’a na ka lawaia, na Malae-ha’a-koa, e!
TRANSLATION
A wind-squall drives the canoes in flight,
Dashing the spray ’gainst the cliff of Kipú.
Peace, waves, for my hook at Wai-niha:
Come, fish, to the hook of the fisher,
The hook of Malae-ha’a-koa!
Hiiaka’s answer to this was a song:
O Malae-ha’a-koa, lawaia o ka pali,
Keiki lawaia oe a Wai-niha,
Mo’opuna oe a Ka-nea-lani,
Lawaia ku pali o Haena;
Au umauma o ke ala haki;
He i’a na ka lawaia,
Na Malae-ha’a-koa, e.
TRANSLATION