No-luna ka Hale-kai[149] no ka ma’a-lewa,[150]
Nana ka maka ia Moana-nui-ka-lehua.[151]
Noi au i ke Kai, e mali’o.[152]
Ina ku a’e la he lehua[153] ilaila!
5 Hopoe-lehua[154] kiekie.
Maka’u ka lehua i ke kanáka,[155]
Lilo ilalo e hele ai, e-e,
A ilalo hoi.
O Kea-au[156] ili-ili nehe ke kai,
[Page 64] 10 Hoo-lono[157] ke kai o Puna
I ka ulu hala la, e-e,
Kai-ko’o Puna.
Ia hooneenee ia pili mai[158] kaua, e ke hoa.
Ke waiho e mai la oe ilaila.
15 Ela ka mea ino la, he anu,
A he anu me he mea la iwaho kaua, e ke hoa;
Me he wai la ko kaua ili.
[Footnote 149: _Hale-kai_. A wild mountain, glen back of
Hanalei valley, Kauai.]
[Footnote 150: _Ma’alewa_. An aerial root that formed a sort
of ladder by which one climbed the mountain steeps; literally
a shaking sling.]
[Footnote 151: _Moana-nui-ka-lehua_. A female demigod that came
from the South (_Ku-kulu-o-Kahiki_) at about the same
mythical period as that of Pele’s arrival—If not in her
company—and who was put in charge of a portion of the
channel that lies between Kauai and Oahu. This channel was
generally termed _Ie-ie-waena_ and _Ie-ie-waho_. Here the
name _Moana-nui-ka-lehua_ seems to be used to indicate the
sea as well as the demigoddess, whose dominion it was.
Ordinarily she appeared as a powerful fish, but she was
capable of assuming the form of a beautiful woman (mermaid?).
The title _lehua_ was given her on account of her womanly
charms.]
[Footnote 152: _Mali’o_. Apparently another form of the word
_malino_, calm; at any rate it has the same meaning.]
[Footnote 153: _Lehua_. An allusion to the ill-fated’ young
woman Hopoe, who was Hiiaka’s intimate friend. The allusion
is amplified in the next line.]
[Footnote 154: _Hopoe-lehua_. The lehua tree was one of the
forms in which Hopoe appeared, and after her death, due to
the jealous rage of Pele, she was turned into a charred lehua
tree which stood on the coast subject to the beating of the
surf.]
[Footnote 155: _Maka’u ka lehua i ke kanaka_. Another version
has it _Maka’u ke kanaka i ka lehua_; Man fears the lehua.
The form here used is perhaps an ironical allusion to man’s
fondness not only to despoil the tree of its scarlet flowers,
but womanhood, the woman it represented.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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