THE LAME FISHERMAN—HIS EPIC RECITAL CELEBRATING PELE
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Emerson, Nathaniel Bright
The heavens were turmoiled with rain clouds,
The firmament sealed, earth black as midnight,
At the birth of the princely ones:
The heaven-urging princess was born;
Then came forth a man-child, a prince,
And the blood-red rain poured down.
Then was born Ku-walu and her lord,
Mala-nai, the far-breathing Trade-wind;
And thou, O Pele, then ate of thy land,
Consuming the groves of ohi’a
And Lele-iwi’s palms by the sea.
Pana-ewa still was a park;
Ka-ú was made a cinder-patch;
By her might Pele threw up a mountain.
Overwhelm your lands, O Pele;
Let your fire-streams flow!
Wonder and awe possess me!
Her lover’s house-post stands in Wai-lua;
There Pele hears a call that appeals;
’Tis a song voiced by Ulu-pó.
She utters no word to answer
This pleading babel of voices,
Now comes the first thrill to virgin flesh;
Impatient, the princeling crawls on his knees;
There’s plenteous downfall of tears, as when
Rain-columns fall, or men leap and dive,
Head-first, feet-first, into the flood.
These symbols will tell the tale, Hiiaka.
For whom do I make this offering of song?
For the ancient stock of Haumea.
God Kane planted the coral reefs;
A work that done in Pele’s time;
For Pele, for Hiiaka the land—
This solid ground that swings and floats
Beneath the o’erhanging arch of heaven.
At Ana-kú once met the gods; the road
Thither lay through Ha-ámo;—but now,
Its drum is dismantled, its fence o’erleaped;
The terrace trampled, a litter of straw,
Champed sugar-cane, heaped odds and ends;