THE LAME FISHERMAN—HIS EPIC RECITAL CELEBRATING PELE
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Emerson, Nathaniel Bright
While the witch-ruler, O Pu’u-loa,
Entreated the wayfaring one,
And the goddess who gilds the lehua
Set aglow Maka-noni’s sunlit verge.
One day for gath’ring and choosing
The flowers devoted to worship,
The next day in upland frosty Huoï.
The earth-creatures glimmer and glow
While the eastern sun tops Kumu-kahi.
Sidewise the black crab springs from his hole
And Kohala spreads out ’neath the orb
That fails to give warmth to the night,
And the Sun hangs low in the sky,
And the clouds, they canopy heaven.
Wonder and awe possess me!
Aua’a-hea meets death, spite of
Steam-bath,—a boar unpurged of bristles—
And poultice hot of aheahea,
An herb that serves as a dish for the gods,
A tidbit for the king’s table.
Thunder resounds in the heavens; rain falls,
Bitter as tears of Ka-ula-hea;
Clouds, torn and ragged, fill the sky,
A piled-up ominous cloud-pillar,
A fabric reared by heaven’s rain-god—
A collect of evils was that.
The gods were aghast at the scandal:
For once Pele found herself duped;
For once Pele shifted in bed;
For once Pele drank to the dregs—
The cup was the brew of her consort;
Her bed the spikes of a-ä.
Stone-armored, passion had slaked.
Where then was her armor of stone?
The prophets, in congress assembled,
Consult on the rape of the goddess—
Red-headed Kane, Ku of the Trade-wind,
Compeers of Pele, consumers of trees,
The women of eight-fold incantations.
Wonder and awe possess me!