EMERSON] UNWRITTEN LITERATURE OF HAWAII 253 



[Translation] 

 Song 



Fame trumpets your conquests each day, 



Brave Lily Victoria ! 



Your scepter tiuds new hearts to sway, 



Subdues the Pacific's wild waves, 

 5 Your foes are left stranded ashore. 



Firm lieart as of steel ! 



Dame Rumor tells us with glee 



Y'our fortunes wax evermore, 



Beauty of Aina-hau, 

 10 Comrade dear to my heart. 



And what of the hyacinth maid. 



Nymph of the Flowery Land? 



I choose the lehua, ilinia, 



As my wreath and emblem of love, 

 15 The small-leafed fern and the niaile — 



What fragrance exhales from thy breast ! 



The story that might explain this modern l^^ric belongs to the gos- 

 sip of half a century ago. The action hinges about one who is styled 

 Pua Lanakila — literally Flower of Victory. Now there is no flower, 

 indigenous or imported, known by this name to the Hawaiians. It is 

 an allegorical invention of the poet. A study of the name and of its 

 interpretation. Victory, at once suggested to me the probability that 

 it was meant for the Princess Victoria Kamamalu. 



As I interpret the story, the lover seems at first to be in a condition 

 of unstable equilibrium, but finally concludes to cleave to the flowers 

 of the soil, the lehua and the illnia (verse 15), the palai and the niaile 

 (verse 17), the meaning of which is clear. 



