220 BUREAU OF AMEKTCAX ETHNOLOGY [bull. 38 



Kii liji]i";i i liiki iiiiii : 

 Ooo pu Die a'u 

 Nolio pn i ka wai aliali. 

 Ilai'iui ia ka pauiia. 

 20 O ka hua o ke kolea, aia i Kaliikl." 

 Hiki uiai koii aloha, inae'ele au. 



I Translation 1 



A plover at the full of the sea — 



What, pray, is it saying to me? 



It keeps bobbing its noddy. 



To do what would you counsel? 

 5 Why, eat its plump body ! 



Whence comes the sweet morsel? 



From the laud of Kahiki. 



When our sovereign appears, 



Hawaii gathers for play, 

 10 Stumble-blocks cleai'ed from the way — 



Fit rule of the king's highway. 



Let each one embrace then his love; 



For me, I'll keep to my dove. 



Hark now, the signal for bed ! 

 IT) Attentive then to love's tread, 



While a wee bird sings in the soul, 



My love comes to me heart-whole — 



Then quaff the waters of bliss. 



Say what is the key to all this? 

 20 The plover egg's laid in Kahiki. 



Your love, when it comes, tinds me duml). 



The plover — kolea — is a wayfarer in Hawaii; its nest-home is in 

 distant lands. Kahiki. The Hawaiian poet finds in all this some- 

 thing that reminds him of the si^irit of love. 



" O ka hua o l;e kolea, aia i Kahiki. In declaring that the egg of the kolea is laid in a 

 foreign land, Kahiki, the poei enigmatizes, basing his thought on some fancied resemblance 

 between the mj'stery of love and the mystery of the kolea's birth. 



