PAOA SEEKS OUT THE BODY OF HIS DEAD FRIEND LOHIAU
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Emerson, Nathaniel Bright
Under the lead of his spiritual guide, Paoa arrived that day at Kilauea and, standing at the brink of the great caldera, he saw the figure of Lohiau beckoning to him as it stood on a heap of volcanic debris. The wraith dissolved into nothingness as he approached the spot; but there lay a figure in stone having the semblance of a man. It was more an act of divination than the exercise of ordinary judgment that told him this was the body of Lohiau. “I thought you had summoned me to take home your living body, my friend!” was his exclamation. His voice was broken with emotion as he poured out his lament:
Mau a’alina oe mauka o Ka-la-ke-ahi;
Ma Puna ka huli mai ana;
Ka ua a Makali’i,
Ke ua la i Laau,
I Kaú, i Ka-hihi, i Ka-pe’a,
I ke wao a ke akua.
Eia ho’i au la, o ka Maka-o-ke-ahi;
Aole ho’i na la o ka Lawa-kua,
Ke Koolau la, e, aloha!
Aloha ku’u hoa i ka ua anu lipoa,
Hu’ihu’i, ko’eko’e, kaoü:
He ahi ke kapa o kaua e mehana ai,
E lala ai kaua i Oma’o-lala;
I pili wale, i ha’alele la, e.
Ha’alele i Wailua na hoa aloha—
O Puna, aina aloha,
O Puna, i Kaua’i.
TRANSLATION
Thou bundle of scars from a fiery day,
’Twas at Puna our journey began,
With a dash of rain in the summer;
Rain again when we entered the woods,
Rain, too, in Kaú, in the jungle,
In the forest-haunts of the gods,
Rain at each crossing of road and path:—
Here stand I, with fire in my eye:
Our days of communion are gone;
You’ve bidden adieu to Ko’olau:
Hail now to my mate of the gloomy rain—
When wet and cold and chilled to the bone,
Our garment of warmth the blazing hearth;
Then basked we at Oma’o-lala,
Haunting the place, then tearing away.
E’en so you tore away from your friends,
Those friends of Wailua, of Puna—
That dear land of Puna, Kaua’i!
(Here is another version of the eloquent prayer of Paoa; furnished by Poepoe, who obtained it from Rev. Pa’aluhi):
O mau a’alina oe,
O mau kakala ke ahi.