HIIAKA CHOOSES THE ROUTE THROUGH PANA-EWA
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Emerson, Nathaniel Bright
Quick follows the downfall!
Is there a compact between us of love?
Fly, voice, assail the ear of Pele!
Erupt, Kahiki, with lightning flash!
Now, Pele, burst forth in thy might!
Pana-ewa entrusted the work of reconnaissance and scouting for information to two of his creatures named Ke-anini and Ihi-kalo, while he lay down and slept. Having done their work, the two scouts waked the drowsy monster in the middle of the night with the information that four human beings, women, had entered his domain and were coming towards him. “Where are they?” he asked.
“Out in this direction (pointing), and they are moving this way.”
“Well, this day of fasting has gone by. What a pity, however, that the poi in my calabash has turned sour, but the taro is sweet. Eye-balls! what juicy, delicious morsels! The day of privation turns out to be a day of feasting.” Thus muttered the cannibal monster, gloating like Polyphemus in his cave at the prospect of a feast.
Hiiaka kept her own courage at the fine point of seeming indifference, she also inspired her companions with the same feeling by the calm confidence displayed in her singing:
Pau ke aho i ke kahawai lau o Hilo:
He lau ka pu’u, he mano ka iho’na;
He mano na kahawai o Kula’i-po;
He wai Honoli’i, he pali o Kama-e’e,
He pali no Koolau ka Hilo-pali-ku;
He pali Wailuku, he one ke hele ia;
He one e ke’ehia la i Wai-olama.
He aka ka wi a ka wai i Pana-ewa—
O Pana-ewa nui, moku-lehua,
Ohi’a kupu hao’eo’e i ka ua,
Lehua ula i ka wi’ ia e ka manu.
A ua po, e, po Puna, po Hilo
I ka uahi o ku’u aina.
By Pana-ewa.—
“Ola ia kini! ke a mai la ke ahi, e-e!”
TRANSLATION
One’s strength is exhausted, climbing, climbing
The countless valleys and ridges of Hilo,—
The streams without number of Ku-la’i-po,
The mighty water of Hono-li’i,
The precipice walls of Kama-e’e,
And the pali of Ko’olau:
Such a land is Hilo-pali-ku.
The banks of Wailuku are walls;
The road to its crossing but sand;
Sandy the way at Wai-o-lama.
How cheery the purl of these waters!—
Great Pana-ewa—her parks of lehua,
Scraggy in growth yet scarlet a-top,
Its nectar wrung out by the birds!
Black night covers Puna and Hilo,