HIIAKA’S ADDRESS TO CAPE KAENA
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Emerson, Nathaniel Bright
Aina a ke Akua i ka li’u;
O ka pa’a kolo hele i o, e-e!
E ho’i mai ana ka oe8 i o’u nei, e-e.
TRANSLATION
Maná, thou land of the godling host,
Thou land of that wonder—mirage;
Swarming with creatures that creep and crawl!
. . . . .
But you’re coming to take me hence!
According to this version of the narrative, which is the preferable one, Hiiaka now took passage in the canoe and from Maná the reunited party sailed away for Oahu. By this happy reunion the otherwise dissevered narrative is brought into harmony and conflicting versions no longer pull away from each other like two ill-trained steers.
The voyage was not without enlivening incident. When the canoe had reached a point where the surges began to roll in the direction of Oahu Hiiaka saw two monster sharks disporting themselves in the waves whom she recognized as relatives on the side of her paternal grand-father, their names being Kua and Kahole-a-Kane. This was her second encounter with these sea-monsters; the first was on her recent voyage to Kauai, an encounter which had threatened serious results, if not disaster, to Hiiaka’s expedition. As the story goes, when Kua and Kahole had become aware that Hiiaka’s going was for the purpose of bringing Lohiau to the bed of Pele, they were moved to great disapproval of her enterprise: “A mere man,” said they. “The idea of mating him with Pele is atrocious: and he is a dead man at that.”
After taking counsel with the sea-goddess Moana-nui-ka-lehua, who had her boudoir in the deep waters of Iëië-waena, with her aid they raised a commotion in the sea and Hiiaka barely escaped being swamped by a mighty water-spout. For her part Hiiaka was quite ready to overlook this rough play of her old kinsfolk and to do the agreeable with them and she accordingly addressed them kindly: “How lucky for me is this meeting again with you out here in the ocean! It will enable me to relieve my hardships by a smack of real comfort.”
The two sea-monsters felt unable to respond to Hiiaka’s advances in a like spirit with her’s. Their consciences pleaded guilty. “Look here,” said Kua to his fellow, “this is our grandchild.”
“Yes,” his companion replied, “and she will put us to death. We’d better hide ourselves, you in your patch of surf, I in mine.”
“That sort of a ruse won’t avail us in the least,” objected Kua.
“What then? Where shall we flee for safety?”
“To the mountains back of Waianae, to be sure,” asserted Kua.
THE DESCENT FROM THE CLIFFS
This suggestion meeting with the approval of his companion, they hastened to land and, having divested themselves of their shark-bodies and resumed human form, they made for the mountains and hid themselves in the palaá fern. Hiiaka was greatly disappointed that these two old people should have so utterly misconceived her attitude of mind toward them as to rob her of their interesting company. She expressed her observations in song:
A makani Kai-a-ulu lalo o Waianae,
E wehe aku ana i ka lau o ka niu.
Ha’i ka nalu o Kua a ala i ka po;
I hiki aku, i moe aku iuka ka luhi o ke kai:
Moe no a huli ke alo9 i ka paia.
Hiki ka alele a kou ipo
A koena lau ka ula,10 e:
He ula aloha, e!—
Makani pahele-hala11 o Kamaile-húna,
Ke wahi mai la e nahá lalo o Malamalama-iki.
Ike’a Wai-lua12—ke kino o ka laau,13
Pau pu no me ke kino o ka Lehua14 wehe’a:
Wehe’a iho nei loko o ka moe,
Malamalama oko’a no olalo me he ahi lele la!
He’e, e-e!
TRANSLATION
A cat’spaw ruffles the Waianae sea,
Lifting the fronds of the coco-palm;
The waves of Kua rise betime
And haste to repose neath the cliff,
To sleep secure with face to the wall.