[Translation]

_Song_

At Wailua stands the main house-post;
This oracle harks to wild voices,
Tumult and clamor, O Ulu-po;
It utters no voice to entreaty.
5 Alas for the prophet that's dumb!
But there drifts the incense of hala.
Mana sees the rain-whirl of Eleao.
The robe of Ka-u sways in the wind,
That dashes the waves 'gainst the sea-wall,
10 At Honu-apo, windy Ka-u;
The Pai-ha'a palms strive with the gale.
Such weather is grievous to you:
The sea-scud is flying.
My little i-ao, O fly
15 With the breeze Koolau!
Fly with the Moa'e-ku!
Look at the rain-mist fly!
Leap with the cataract, leap!
Plunge, now here, now there!
20 Feet foremost, head foremost;
Leap with a glance and a glide!
Kauna, opens the dance; you win.
Rise, Hiiaka, arise!

The meaning of this mele centers about a phenomenon that is
said to have been observed at Ka-ipu-ha'a, near Wailua, on
Kauai. To one standing on a knoll near the two cliffs Ikuwa
and Mahoena (verse 5) there came, it is said, an echo from
the murmur and clamor of the ocean and the moan of the wind,
a confused mingling of nature's voices. The listener,
however, got no echoing answer to his own call.

The mele does not stick to the unities as we understand them.
The poets of old Hawaii felt at liberty to run to the ends of
their earth; and the auditor must allow his imagination to be
transported suddenly from one island to another; in this
[Page 193] case, first from Wailua to Mana on the same island, where he
is shown the procession of whirling rain clouds of Eleao
(verse 7). Thence the poet carries him to Honuapo, Hawaii,
and shows him the waves dashing against the ocean-walls and
the clashing of the palm-fronds of Paiaha'a in the wind.

The scene shifts back to Kauai, and one stands with the poet