Читать книгу The Traditional Literature of Hawaii - Sacred Songs of the Hula - Nathaniel Bright Emerson - Страница 30

Anklet-Song

Fragrant the grasses of high. Kane-hoa.

Bind on the anklets, bind!

Bind with finger deft as the wind

That cools the air of this bower.

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Lehua bloom pales at my flower,

O sweetheart of mine,

Bud that I'd pluck and wear in my wreath,

If thou wert but a flower!

The short skirt, pa-u, was the most important piece of attire worn by the Hawaiian female. As an article of daily wear it represented many stages of evolution beyond the primitive fig-leaf, being fabricated from a great variety of materials furnished by the garden of nature. In its simplest terms the pa-ú was a mere fringe of vegetable fibers. When placed as the shield of modesty about the loins of a woman of rank, or when used as the full-dress costume of a dancing girl on a ceremonious occasion, it took on more elaborate forms, and was frequently of tapa, a fabric the finest specimens of which would not have shamed the wardrobe of an empress.

In the costuming of the hula girl the same variety obtained as in the dress of a woman of rank. Sometimes her pa-ú would be only a close-set fringe of ribbons stripped from the bark of the hibiscus (hau), the ti leaf or banana fiber, or a fine rush, strung upon a thong to encircle the waist. In its most elaborate and formal style the pa-ú consisted of a strip of fine tapa several yards long and of width to reach nearly to the knees. It was often delicately tinted or printed, as to its outer part, with stamped figures. The part of the tapa skirt thus printed, like the outer, decorative one in a set of tapa bed-sheets, was termed the kilohana.

The pa-ú worn by the danseuse, when of tapa, was often of such volume as to balloon like the skirt of a coryphée. To put it on was quite an art, and on that account, if not on the score of modesty, a portion of the halau, was screened off and devoted to the use of the females as a dressing room, being known as the unu-lau-koa, and to this place they repaired as soon as the kumu gave the signal for dressing.

The hula pa-ú of the women was worn in addition to that of daily life; the hula pa-ú of the men, a less pretentious affair, was worn outside the malo, and in addition to it.

The method of girding on the pa-ú was peculiar. Beginning at the right hip--some say the left--a free end was allowed to hang quite to the knee; then, passing across the back, rounding the left hip, and returning by way of the abdomen to the starting point, another circuit of the waist was accomplished; and, a reverse being made, the garment was secured by passing the bight of the tapa beneath the hanging folds of the pa-ú from below upward until it slightly protruded above the border of the garment at the waist. This second end was thus brought to hang down the hip alongside of the first free end; an arrangement that produced a most decorative effect.

The Hawaiians, in their fondness for giving personal names to inanimate objects, named the two free ends (apua) of the pa-ú respectively Ku-kápu-úla-ka-láni and Léle-a-mahu'i.

According to another method, which was simpler and more commonly employed, the piece was folded sidewise and, being gathered into pleats, a cord was inserted the length of the fold. The cord was passed about the waist, knotted at the hip, and thus held the garment secure.

While the girls are making their simple toilet and donning their unique, but scanty, costume, the kumu, aided by others, soothes the impatience of the audience and stimulates their imagination by cantillating a mele that sets forth in grandiloquent imagery the praise of the pa-ú.

Oli Pa-ú

Kakua pa-ú, ahu na kikepa! 92

I ka pa-ú noenoe i hooluu'a,

I hookakua ia a paa iluna o ka imu. 93

Ku ka nu'a 94 o ka pali o ka wai kapu,

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He kuina 95 pa-ú pali 96 no Kupe-hau,

I holo a paa ia, paa e Hono-kane. 97

Malama o lilo i ka pa-ú.

Holo ilio la ke ala ka Manú 98 i na pali;

Pali ku kahakó liaka a-i,

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I ke keiki pa-ú pali a Kau-kini, 99

I hoonu'anu'a iluna o ka Auwana. 100

Akahi ke ana, ka luhi i ka pa-ú:

Ka ho-oio i ke kapa-wai,

I na kikepa wai o Apua, 101

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I hopu 'a i ka ua noe holo poo-poo,

Me he pa-ú elehiwa wale i na pali.

Ohiohi ka pali, ki ka liko o ka lama,

Mama ula 102 ia ka malua ula,

I hopu a omau ia e ka maino.

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I 103 ka malo o Umi ku huná mai.

Ike'a ai na maawe wai oloná, 104

E makili ia nei i Wahilau. 105

Holo ke oloná, paa ke kapa.

Hu'a lepo ole ka pa-ú;

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Nani ka o-iwi ma ka maka kilo-hana. 106

Makalii ka ohe, 107 paa ke kapa.

Opua ke ahi i na pali,

I hookau kalena ia e ka makani,

I kaomi pohaku ia i Wai-manu,

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I na alá 108 ki-óla-óla;

I na alá, i alá lele

Ia Kane-poha-ka'a. 109

Paa ia Wai-manu, 110 o-oki Wai-pi'o;

Lalau o Ha'i i ka ohe,

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Ia Koa'e-kea, 111

I kauhihi ia ia ohe laulii, ia ohe.

Oki'a a moku, mo' ke kini, 112

Mo ke kihl, ka maiáma ka Hoaka, 113

I apahu ia a poe,

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O awili 114 o Malu-ô.

He pola ia no ka pa-ú;

E hii ana e Ka-holo-kua-iwa,

Ke amo la e Pa-wili-wlli

I ka pa-ú poo kau-poku-- 115

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Kau poku a hana ke ao,

Kau iluna o Hala'a-wili,

I owili hana haawe.

Ku-ka'a, olo-ka'a wahie;

Ka'a ka opeope, ula ka pali; 116

50

Uwá, kamalii, hookani ka pihe,

Hookani ka a'o, 117 a hana pilo ka leo,

I ka mahalo i ka pa-ú,

I ka pa-ú wai-lehua a Hi'i-lawe 118 iluna,

Pi'o anuenue a ka ua e ua nei.

This is a typical Hawaiian poem of the better sort, keyed in a highly imaginative strain. The multitude of specific allusions to topographical names make it difficult to translate it intelligently to a foreign mind. The poetical units are often so devised that each new division takes its clue from the last word of the previous verse, on the principle of "follow your leader," a capital feature in Hawaiian poetry.