EMERSON] UNWRITTEN LITEEATUEE OF HAWAII 163 



[Translation] 



A Name-song of Kamehameha 



In Waipi'o stands Pal^a'alana, 

 The sacred shrine of Liloa. 

 Love to the woman climbing the steep, 

 Who gathered the ulei berries, 

 5 Who ate of the uncoolied herbs of the wild. 

 Craving the swaying frnit like a hungry child. 

 A covert I found from the storm, 

 Life in my sea of delight. 



The text of this mele — -said to be a name-song of Kamehameha V — 

 as first secured had undergone some corruption which obscured the 

 meaning. By calling to his aid an old Hawaiian in whose memory 

 the song had long been stored the author was able to correct it. 

 Hawaiian authorities are at variance as to its meaning. One party 

 reads in it an exclusive allusion to characters that have flitted across 

 the stage within the memory of people now living, while another, 

 taking a more romantic and traditional view, finds in it a reference 

 to an old-time myth — that of Ke-anini-ula-o-ka-lani — the chief 

 character in which was Ua'ma-kolo. (See note e.^ After carefully 

 considering both sides of the question it seems to the author that, 

 while the principle of double allusion, so common in Hawaiian poetry, 

 may here prevail, one is justified in giving prominence to the 

 historico-mythological interpretation that is inwoven in the poem. 

 It is a comforting thought that adhesion to this decision will suffer 

 certain unstaged actions of crowned heads to remain in charitable 

 oblivion. 



The music of this song is an admirable and faithful interpretation 

 of the old Hawaiian manner of cantillation, having received at the 

 hands of the foreign musician only so much trimming as was neces- 

 sary to idealize it and make it reducible to our system of notation. 



Explanatory Note 



Hoaeae. — This term calls for a quiet, sentimental style of recitation, 

 in which the fluctuating trill i'i, if it occurs at all, is not made promi- 

 nent. It is contrasted with the olioli^ in which the style is warmer 

 and the fluctuations of the i'i are carried to the extreme. 



Thus far we have been considering the traditional indigenous music 

 of the land. To come now to that which has been and is being pro- 

 duced in Hawaii by Hawaiians to-day, under influences from abroad, 

 it will not be possible to mistake the presence in it of two strains: 

 The foreign, showing its hand in the lopping away of much redun- 

 dant foliage, has brought it largely within the compass of scientific 

 and technical expression; the native element reveals itself, now in 



