HIIAKA CONSENTS TO PELE’S PROPOSITION
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Emerson, Nathaniel Bright
E ku ana au e hele;
E lau ka maka o ua nei ino;
E ka po’e ino, o lakou nei, e:
E mana ana, ka, ia’u e hele;
E hele no au, e-e!
TRANSLATION
While I stand ready for travel,
You bad lot! ’Tis you that I mean!
This weight of travel you’d lay on me;
These bad ones sit with impudent stare:
And so it is I that must go!
The opposition of the sisters was based largely on Hiiaka’s youth and inexperience. The girl did not understand nor give them credit for this generous regard for herself; she saw only their disobedience and disloyalty to Pele’s command.
Pele, impatient at her vacillation, broke out on her savagely: “Here you are again! Be off on your journey! You shall find no food here, no meat, no raiment, no roof, no sisterly greeting, nothing, until you return with the man. It would have been useless to dispatch these homely women on this errand; it seems equally useless to send a beautiful girl like you.”
To this outburst Hiiaka retorted:
Ke hanai a’e la ka ua1 i ka lani:
Maka’u au i ka ua awa i ka uka o Kiloi.
Iná2 ia ia la, he loiloi3, e—
I loiloi no oe elua4 oiwi—
Loiloi iho la, e-e!
TRANSLATION
The rain doth replenish the heavens;
I dread the fierce rain of upland Kiloí.
Behold now this one, the fault-finder!
You, in two shapes, are hard to please—
Aye, in either shape, hard to please!
“I am not grumbling or finding fault with you (loiloi): it was simply because you turned back that I spoke to you. Do you call that reproaching you?”
Hiiaka, though a novice in diplomacy, as shown by her instant and unconditional acceptance of Pele’s proposition, having once got her second breath, now exacted of Pele a condition that proved her to be, under the discipline of experience, an apt pupil in the delicate art of diplomacy. “I am going to bring our lover, while you remain at home. If during my absence you go forth on one of your raids, you are welcome to ravage and consume the lands that are common to us both; but, see to it that you do not consume my forests of lehua. And, again, if the fit does come upon you and you must ravage and destroy, look to it that you harm not my friend Hopoe.”
Pele readily agreed to Hiiaka’s reasonable demand, thinking thus to hasten her departure. To the inexperienced girl the terms of the agreement seemed now complete and satisfactory, and, in the first blush of her gratification, Hiiaka gave expression to her pleasure:
Ke kau aloha wale mai la ka ua, e-e;
Ka mauna o ka haliü kua, a-a.
I ku au a aloha oe, ka Lua, e-e!
Aloha ia oe, e-e!
TRANSLATION
Kindly falls the rain from heaven;
Now may I turn my back and travel:
Travel-girt, I bid farewell to the Pit;
Here’s a farewell greeting to thee.
Even now Hiiaka made an ineffectual start. Some voice of human instinct whispered that something was wanting, and she again faced her sister with a request so reasonable that it could not be denied:
Ke ku nei au e hele:
Hele au a ke ala,