EMERSON] UNWRITTEN LITERATURE OF HAWAII 59 



how faithful has been the effort to translate these poems, they Avill 

 not be found eas}^ of comprehension. The local allusions, the point 

 of vieAv, the atmosphere that were in the mind of the savage are not 

 in our minds to-day, and will not again be in any mind on earth ; they 

 defy our best efforts at reproduction. To conjure up the ghostly 

 semblance of these dead impalpable things and make them live again 

 is a problem that must be solved by each one with such aid from the 

 divining rod of the imagination as the reader can summon to his help. 

 Now for the play, the song : 



Mele no ka Hula Ald'a-papa 



MAHELE-HELE I 



Pauku 1 



A Koolau wail, ike i ka iia, 

 E ko-kolo la-lepo ana ka ua, 

 E ka'i ku ana, ka'i niai aua ka ua, 

 E nil uiai ana ka ua i ke kuahiwi, 

 5 E po'i ana ka ua me be nalu la. 

 E puka, a puka niai ka ua la. 

 Waliwali ke one i ka liehi'a e ka ua ; 

 Ua holo-wai na kaha-wai; 

 Ua ko-ke wale na pali. 

 10 Aia ka wai la i ka llina," lie ilio, 

 He ilio liae, ke naliu nei e puka. 



[Translation] 



Sotiff for the Hula AUVa-papa. 

 CANTO I 



Stanza 1 



'Twas in Koolau I met with the rain : 

 It comes with lifting and tossing of dust, 

 Advancing in columns, dashing along. 

 The rain, it sighs in the forest ; 

 5 The rain, it heats and whelms, like the surf; 

 It smites, it smites now the land. 

 Pasty the earth from the stamping rain ; 

 Full run the streams, a rushing flood ; 

 The mountain walls lea]) with the rain. 

 10 See the water chafing its hounds like a dog, 

 A raging dog, gnawing its way to pass out. 



This song is from the storj^ of Iliiaka on her journey to Kauai to 

 bring the handsome prince, Lohiau, to Pele. The region is that on 

 the windward, Koolau, side of Oahu. 



" Ilina. A sink, a place where a stream sinks into the earth or sand. 



