HIIAKA VISITS PELE-ULA AT KOU—THE HULA KILU
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Emerson, Nathaniel Bright
TRANSLATION
Yoke-fellow in toil at Maná,
I’m swept off my feet in this flood:
The leaves of the twisted hala,
The sheath of its perfumy bloom—
All torn by the rage of the stream:
You alone remain to me now—
Your love, if that is yet mine,
If your heart remains with me still.
Warming to his work, Lohiau continued:
Ku’u hoa i ke kawelu oho o Malai-lua,
I ho’o-holu ia, ho’opi’o ia e ka makani,
Naue ke oho o ka hala,
Maewa i ke kai o Po’o-ku e, eia oe;
He ku oe na’u, e ke aloha:
Ina oe mawaho e, eia oe.
TRANSLATION
Mate mine through grassy meads, awave,
Wind-swept and tossed by breeze or storm,
Or when the leaves of screwy palm
Are smitten with brine from the sea,
Thou idol enshrined in my heart,
Though apart, thou art empress within.
Still protesting his love for Hiiaka and deploring his separation from her, Lohiau continues:
A ka lihi au i ka hala o Hanalei;29
Lei au i ka hala30 o Po’oku e, eia oe.
He ku oe na’u, e ke aloha;
Ina oe maloko e, eia oe.
TRANSLATION
I neighbor the land of the wreath,
My luck, to pine for a palm-crown.
Oh, wouldst thou but twine the wreath, love,
Admit to the shrine of thy heart.
Lohiau, warming to his work, strutted and capered about like a capercailzie cock before his mistresses, lashing his passion—after the manner of a flagellant—with words of wild hyperbole; but ever approaching nearer and nearer to where sat the two women about whom revolved his thoughts. As to which one of them it was that he singled out as the center of his orbit for the time, that is to be deduced from a study of his song:
Aloha wale ka nikiniki,
Ke kanaenae pua o Maile-huna;
E a’e ia ana ia Kapa’a,
I ke kahuli a ke kalukalu:
Honi u i ke ala o ka hinalo, e:
Pe wale ia uä—uä, e!