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

Song of Welcome

What love to our cottage-homes, now vacant,

As one climbs the mount of Entreaty!

We call,

We voice the welcome, invite you to enter.

The hill of Affliction out there is the cold.

Another fragment that was sometimes used as a password is the following bit of song taken from the story of Hiiaka, sister of Pele. She is journeying with the beautiful Hopoe to feteh prince Lohiau to the court of Pele. They have come by a steep and narrow path to the brink of the Wai-lua river, Kauai, at this point spanned by a single plank. But the bridge is gone, removed by an ill-tempered naiad (witch) said to have come from Kahiki, whose name, Wai-lua, is the same as that of the stream. Hiiaka calls out, demanding that the plank be restored to its place. Wai-lua does not recognize the deity in Hiiaka and, sullen, makes no response. At this the goddess puts forth her strength, and Wai-lua, stripped of her power and reduced to her true station, that of a mo'o, a reptile, seeks refuge in the caverns beneath the river. Hiiaka betters the condition of the crossing by sowing it with stepping stones. The stones remain in evidence to this day.

Mele Kahea

Kunihi ka mauna i ka la'i e,

O Wai-ale-ale ⁵⁹ la i Wai-lua,

Huki a'e la i ka lani

Ka papa au-wai o ka Wai-kini;

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Alai ia a'e la e Nou-nou,

Nalo ka Ipu-ha'a,

Ka laula mauka o Kapa'a, e!

Mai pa'a i ka leo!

He ole ka hea mai, e!