HIIAKA RESTORES TO LIFE MANA-MANA-IA-KALU-EA
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Emerson, Nathaniel Bright
TRANSLATION
The sentence of death is affirmed
By the women—the gods—who tend
On the rising Sun of Puna,
Are Sun-guards at Ha’e-ha’e,
Pluck lehua-bloom at Kuki’i,
Rejoice in the stream Milo-holu
String the flower-wreaths of Mali’o—
Confirmed by Pele, God of the Pit—
Once heir to the sacred South-land,
And by Hiiaka, her shadow,
Gleam shot from the eye of Wakea.
Thus saith the goddess Haumea:
Great torment, fever and swelling
Shall scorch and rack him to death!
The woman Wai-hinano replied to Hiiaka with great spirit and temper:
Aole e make ku’u alii ia oe:
Ke hoole mai nei na ’kua wahine o ia nei,
O Ha-pu’u,12 laua o Ka-lei-hau-ola,12
O na ’kua nana i lapu Hawaii a puni:
Oia ho’i ka i a ke Akua:
Ke hoole mai nei, aole e make!
TRANSLATION
My king shall not die by your arts:
His witch-gods deny you the power—
Ha-pu’u and Ka-lei-hau-ola;—
They peopled Hawaii with ghosts:
The voice of the gods, the king’s gods,
Declares that he shall not die!
The situation was peculiar: while Ka-ula-hea (in the narrative sometimes called Ole-pau) lay asleep, his second soul, kino wailua, deserting its post of duty as life-guard over the bodily tenement, had stolen away in pursuit of its own pleasures. It was this very kino wailua that Hiiaka had seen flanking her own route, as it flitted through the fields, and which she had caught and now held fast in her hand like a fluttering moth, a hostage answerable for his misbehaviour and disregard of the rites of hospitality. Its possession gave Hiiaka complete power over the life of the king. It was no empty vaunt when Hiiaka again declared in song:
Aohe kala i make ai;
Ua pu-á ia na iwi;
Ua akua13 ka ai a ka ilo!
TRANSLATION
King death has gripped him ere this;
His bones already are bundled;
The worms—they batten like gods!
While Wai-hinano was listening to these awful words of Hiiaka she was dumbfounded by the tidings that Ka-ula-hea had waked from seemingly peaceful sleep in great perturbation, and that he had been seized with the most alarming and distressful symptoms. In her distraction and rage she still maintained a defiant attitude:
Aohe make ku’u alii ia oe!
Ke hoole mai nei na akua kane o ia nei,