BMBBSON] UNWEITTEN LITERATURE OF HAWAII 111 



Ua noho pu i ka nahele 

 Me ka lei hiuahina o Maka-li'i. 

 15 Liilii ka uka o Koae'a ; 

 Nana i ka na lani-pili, 

 Ka 0-6, manu le'a o ka nahele. 



I Pa-ie-le au, noho pu nie ke ami. 

 E ha'i a'e oe i ka puana: 

 20 Ke kahuna kalai-hoe o Puu-ka-Pele. 



[Translation] 



Song 



CANTO I 



Whence art thou, thirsty wind, 

 That gently kissest the sea, 

 Then, wed to the ocean breeze, 

 Playest fan with the bread-fruit tree? 

 5 Here sprawl Hala-lii's canes, 



There stands bird-haunted Lehua. 



CANTO II 



My wreath-maker dwells at Waimea. 



Partnered is she to the swirling river; 



They plant with flowers the sandy lea, 

 10 While the bearded surf, tossed by the breeze, 



Vaunts on the hills as the sun-bow. 



Looks on the crystal stream Makaweli, 



And in the wildwood makes her abode 



With Hinahiua of silvern wreaths. 

 15 Koaea's a speck to the eye. 



Under the low-hanging rain-cloud. 



Woodland home of the plaintive o-6. 



B"'rom frost-bitten Pa-ie-ie 

 I bid you, guess me the fable: 

 20 Paddle-maker on Pele's mount. 



This mele comes from Kauai, an island in many respects individ- 

 ualized from the other parts of the group and that seems to have 

 been the nurse of a more delicate imagination than was wont to flour- 

 ish elseAvhere. Its tone is archaic, and it has the rare merit of not 

 transfusing the more crudely erotic human emotions into the romantic 

 sentiments inspired by nature. 



The Hawaiians dearly loved fable and allegory. Argument or 

 truth, dressed out in such fanciful garb, gained double force and ac- 

 ceptance. We may not be able to follow a poet in his Avanderings; 

 his local allusions may obscure to us much of his meaning; the doc- 

 trine of his allegory may be to us largely a riddle; and the connection 

 between the body of its thought and illustration and the application, 

 or solution, of the poetical conundrum may be past our comprehen- 

 sion ; but the play of the poet's fancy, whether childish or mature, is 



