I aloha i ke ko a ka wai,
I ka i mai, e, anu kaua.
Ua anu na pua o ka laina,[502]
Ka wahine noho anu o ke kula.
5 A luna au a o Poli-ahu;[503]
Ahu wale kai a o Wai-lua.
Lua-ole ka hana a ka makani,
A ke Kiu-ke’e[504] a o na pali,
Pa iho i ke kai a o Puna—
10 Ko Puna mea ma’a mau ia.
Pau ai ko’u lihi hoihoi
I ka wai awili me ke kai.
Ke ono hou nei ku’u pu’u
I ka wai hu’ihu’i o ka uka,
[Page 252] 15 Wai hone i ke kumu o ka pali,
I malu i ka lau kui-kui.[505]
Ke kuhi nei au a he pono
Ka ilima lei a ke aloha,
Au i kau nui aku ai,
20 I ka nani oi a oia pua.
[Footnote 501: The _uku-lele_ and the _taro-patch fiddle_ are
stringed instruments resembling in general appearance the
fiddle. They seem to have been introduced into these islands
by the Portuguese immigrants who have come in within the last
twenty-five years. As with the guitar, the four strings of
the uku-lele or the five strings of the taro-patch fiddle are
plucked with the finger or thumb.]
[Footnote 502: _Na pua o ka laina_. The intent of this
expression, which seems to have an erotic meaning, may
perhaps be inferred from its literal rendering in the
translation. It requires a tropical imagination to follow a
Hawaiian poem.]
[Footnote 503: _Poli-ahu_. A place or region on Mauna-kea.]
[Footnote 504: _Kiu-ke’e_. The name of a wind felt at
Nawiliwili, Kauai. The local names for winds differed on the
various islands and were multiplied almost without measure:
as given in the mythical story of Kama-pua’a, or in the
semihistoric tale of Kú-a-Paka’a, they taxed the memories of
raconteurs.]
[Footnote 505: _Kui-kui._ The older name-form of the tree
(Aleurites triloba), popularly known by some as the
candle-nut tree, from the fact that its oily nuts were used
in making torches. _Kukui_, or _tutui_, is the name now
applied to the tree, also to a torch or lamp. The Samoan
language still retains the archaic name _tuitui_. This is one
of the few instances in which the original etymology of a
word is retained in Hawaiian poetry.]
[Translation.]
_Song_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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