Puapualenalena

Kii: Ku'ialuaopuna

UNWRITTEN LITERATURE OF HAWAII

THE SACRED SONGS OF THE HULA

collected and translated, with notes and an account of the hula

By NATHANIEL B. EMERSON, A. M., M. D.

Copyright © 1998 by Mutual Publishing

Mutual Publishing, LLC

1215 Center Street, Suite 210

Honolulu, Hawaii 96816

Chapter 33, Hula Ilio

Pgs 233- 237

This mele thou ancient, is also found in old lua traditions and stories passed down.

The allusions in this mele are to the story that tells of the god Kaneʼs awa drinking on the heights about Waipiʻo valley; how he and his fellows by the noise of their furious conching disturbed the prayers and rituals of King Liloa and his priests, Kane himself being the chief offender by his blowing on the conch-shell Kihapū, stolen from Liloaʼs temple of Pakaʻalana; its recovery by the wit and dramatic action of the gifted dog Puapua-lenalena.

Ku e, nanā e!

Makole o Ku !

Hoolei ia ka lei,

I lei no Puapua-lenalena,

He lei hinano no Kahili,

He wehiwehi no Niho-kū.

Kaanini ka lani, uwē ka honua;

A aoa aku oe;

Lohe o Hiwa-uli,

Ka milimili a ka lani,

Noho opua i ka malāmalāma

Mālama ia ka ipu.

He hano-wai no Kilioe,

Wahine noho pali o Haena.

Enaena na ahi o Kilauea,

Ka haku pali o Kamohoalii.

A noho i Waipiʻo,

Ka pali kapu a Kane.

Moe ole ka po o ke alii,

Ke kani mau o Kiha-pū.

Ukiuki, uluhua ke alii:

Hoouna ka elele;

Loaa i Kauai o Māno,

Kupueu a Wai-uli me Kahili;

A ao aku oe, aoa, aoa a aoa.

Hana e o Kaua-hoa,

Ka mea ūi o Hanalei,

Huʻeʻa kaua, moe i ke awakea,

Kapae ke kaua o ka hoahanau!

Hookahi no pua o ka oi;

Awili pu me ke kaioʻe.

I lei no Puapua-lenalena.

O kuʻu luhi ua hiki iho la,

Ka nioi o Pakaʻa-lana.

A lana ka manao, hakukoʻi ʻloko,

Ka hae mau ana a Puapua-lenalena,

A hiki i Kumu-kahi,

Kahi au i noho ai,

A hiki iho la ka elele,

Inu i ka awa kau-laau o Puna.

Aoa, he, he, hene!

Translation

Look forth, god Ku, look forth!

Huh! Ku is blear-eyed!

Aye, weave now the wreath—

A wreath for the dog Pua-lena;

A hala plume for Kahili,

Choice garlands from Niho-kū.

There was a scurry of clouds, earth groaned;

The sound of your baying reached

Hawaii the verdant, the pet of the gods;

A portent was seen in the heavens.

You were kept in a cradle of gourd,

Water-gourd of the witch Kilioe,

Who haunted the cliffs of Haena—

The fiery blasts of the crater

Touch not Kamoho-aliiʼs cliff.

Your travel reaches Waipiʻo,

The sacred cliff of god Kane.

Sleep fled the bed of the king

At the din of the conch Kiha-pū.

The king was tormented, depressed;

His messenger sped on his way;

Found help from Kauai of Māno—

The marvelous foster child,

By Waiuli, Kahuli, upreared;

Your answer, a-o-a, a-o-a !—

ʼTwas thus Kauahoa made ready betimes,

That hero of old Hanalei—

"Strike home! then sleep at midday!"

" God fend a war between kindred! "

One flower all other surpasses;

Twine with it a wreath of kai-oʻe,

A chaplet to crown Pua-lena.

My labor now has its reward,

The doorsill of Pa-kaʻa-lana.

My heart leaps up in great cheer;

The bay of the dog greets my ear,

It reaches East Cape by the sea,

Where Puna gave refuge to thee,

Till came the kingʼs herald, hot-foot,

And quaffed the awaʼs tree-grown root.

A-o-a, a-o-a, he, he, hene !

Makole. Red-eyed; ophthalmic.

The wreath, lei, is not for the god, but for the dog Puapua-lenalena, the one who in the story recovered the stolen conch, Kiha-pū (verse 20), with which god Kane made night hideous and disturbed the repose of pious King Liloa (Moe ole ka po o ke aīii, verse 19).

Kahili. Said to be the foster mother of Puapua-lenalena.

Niho-kū. Literally an upright tooth, was the name of the hill on which lived the old couple who were the foster parents of the dog.

Kaanini ka lani, etc. Portents by which heaven and earth expressed their appreciation of the birth of a new prodigy, the dog Puapua-lenalena.

Hiwa-uli. An epithet applied to the island of Hawaii, perhaps on account of the immense extent of territory on that island that was simply black lava; hiwa, black, was a sacred color. The term uli has reference to its verdancy.

Ipu. Wai-uli, the foster father of the dog, while fishing in a mountain brook, brought up a pebble on his hook; his wife, who was childless and yearned for offspring, kept it in a calabash wrapped in choice tapa. In a year or two it had developed into the wonderful dog, Puapua-lenalena. The calabash was the ipu here mentioned, the same as the hano wai (verse 13), a water-container.

Kiliōe. A sorceress who lived at Haēna, Kauai, on the steep cliffs that were inaccessible to human foot.

Ena-ena na ahi o Kilauea. "Hot are the fires of Kilauea." The duplicated word ena-ena, taken in connection with Ha-ena in the previous verse, is a capital instance of a form of assonance, or nonterminal rhyme, much favored and occasionally used by Hawaiian poets of the middle period. From the fact that its use here introduces a break in the logical relation which it is hard to reconcile with unity one may think that the poet was seduced from the straight and narrow way by this opportunity for an indulgence that sacrifices reason to rhyme.

Kamoho-alii. The brother of Pele; his person was so sacred that the flames and smoke of Kilauea dared not invade the bank on which he reposed. The connection of thought between this and the main line of argument is not clear.

Hoouna ka elele. According to one story Liloa dispatched a messenger to bring Puapua-lenalena and his master to Waipiʻo to aid him in regaining possession of Kiha-pū.

A ao aku oe, aoa   * . This indicated the dogʼs assent. Puapua-lenalena understood what was said to him, but could make no reply in human speech. When a question was put to him, if he wished to make a negative answer, he would keep silent; but if he wished to express assent to a proposition, he barked and frisked about.

Hana e o Kaua-hoa.   * No one has been found who can give a satisfactory explanation of the logical connection existing between the passage here cited and the rest of the poem. It treats of an armed conflict between Kauahoa and his cousin Kawelo, a hero from Oahu, which took place on Kauai. Kauahoa was a retainer and soldier of Ai-kanaka, a king of Kauai. The period was in the reign of King Kakuhihewa, of Oahu. Kawelo invaded Kauai with an armed force and made a proposition to Kauahoa which involved treachery to Kauahoaʼs liege-lord Ai-kanaka. Kauahoaʼs answer to this proposition is given in verse 28; Huʻe a kaua, moe i ke awakea!—" Strike home, then sleep at midday! " The sleep at midday was the sleep of death.

Kaanini ka lani, etc. Portents by which heaven and earth expressed their appreciation of the birth of a new prodigy, the dog Puapua-lenalena.

Hiwa-uli. An epithet applied to the island of Hawaii, perhaps on account of the immense extent of territory on that island that was simply black lava; hiwa, black, was a sacred color. The term uli has reference to its verdancy.

Ipu. Wai-uli, the foster father of the dog, while fishing in a mountain brook, brought up a pebble on his hook; his wife, who was childless and yearned for offspring, kept it in a calabash wrapped in choice tapa. In a year or two it had developed into the wonderful dog, Puapua-lenalena. The calabash was the ipu here mentioned, the same as the hano wai (verse 13), a water-container.

Kiliōe. A sorceress who lived at Haēna, Kauai, on the steep cliffs that were inaccessible to human foot.

Ena-ena na ahi o Kilauea. "Hot are the fires of Kilauea." The duplicated word ena-ena, taken in connection with Ha-ena in the previous verse, is a capital instance of a form of assonance, or nonterminal rhyme, much favored and occasionally used by Hawaiian poets of the middle period. From the fact that its use here introduces a break in the logical relation which it is hard to reconcile with unity one may think that the poet was seduced from the straight and narrow way by this opportunity for an indulgence that sacrifices reason to rhyme.

Kamoho-alii. The brother of Pele; his person was so sacred that the flames and smoke of Kilauea dared not invade the bank on which he reposed. The connection of thought between this and the main line of argument is not clear.

Hoouna ka elele. According to one story Liloa dispatched a messenger to bring Puapua-lenalena and his master to Waipiʻo to aid him in regaining possession of Kiha-pū.

A ao aku oe, aoa   * . This indicated the dogʼs assent. Puapua-lenalena understood what was said to him, but could make no reply in human speech. When a question was put to him, if he wished to make a negative answer, he would keep silent; but if he wished to express assent to a proposition, he barked and frisked about.

Hana e o Kaua-hoa.   * No one has been found who can give a satisfactory explanation of the logical connection existing between the passage here cited and the rest of the poem. It treats of an armed conflict between Kauahoa and his cousin Kawelo, a hero from Oahu, which took place on Kauai. Kauahoa was a retainer and soldier of Ai-kanaka, a king of Kauai. The period was in the reign of King Kakuhihewa, of Oahu. Kawelo invaded Kauai with an armed force and made a proposition to Kauahoa which involved treachery to Kauahoaʼs liege-lord Ai-kanaka. Kauahoaʼs answer to this proposition is given in verse 28; Huʻe a kaua, moe i ke awakea!—" Strike home, then sleep at midday! " The sleep at midday was the sleep of death.

The author of this mele, apparently under the sanction of his poetic license, uses toward the great god Ku a plainness of speech which to us seems satirical; he speaks of him as makole, red-eyed, the result, no doubt, of his notorious addiction to awa, in which he was not alone among the gods. But it is not at all certain that the Hawaiians looked upon this ophthalmic redness as repulsive or disgraceful. Everything connected with awa had for them a cherished value. In the mele given on p. 130 the cry was, " Kane is drunken with awa! " The two gods Kane and Ku were companions in their revels as well as in nobler adventures. Such a poem as this flashes a strong light into the workings of the Hawaiian mind on the creations of their own imagination, the beings who stood to them as gods; not robbing them of their power, not deposing them from the throne of the universe, perhaps not even penetrating the veil of enchantment and mystery with which the popular regard covered them, at the most perhaps giving them a hold on the affections of the people.