Page:Pele and Hiiaka; a myth from Hawaii (IA pelehiiakamythfr00emeriala).pdf/43

E ka po'e ino, o lakou nei, e:
E mana ana, ka, ia'u e hele;
E hele no au, e-e!

TRANSLATION

While I stand ready for travel,
You bad lot! 'Tis you that I mean!
This weight of travel you'd lay on me;
These bad ones sit with impudent stare:
And so it is I that must go!

The opposition of the sisters was based largely on Hiiaka's youth and inexperience. The girl did not understand nor give them credit for this generous regard for herself; she saw only their disobedience and disloyalty to Pele's command.

Pele, impatient at her vacillation, broke out on her savagely: "Here you are again! Be off on your journey! You shall find no food here, no meat, no raiment, no roof, no sisterly greeting, nothing, until you return with the man. It would have been useless to dispatch these homely women on this errand; it seems equally useless to send a beautiful girl like you."

To this outburst Hiiaka retorted:

Ke hanai a'e la ka ua^[1] i ka lani:
Maka'u au i ka ua awa i ka uka o Kiloi.
Iná^[2] ia ia la, he loiloi^[3], e—
I loiloi no oe elua^[4] oiwi—
Loiloi iho la, e-e!

TRANSLATION

The rain doth replenish the heavens;
I dread the fierce rain of upland Kiloí.
Behold now this one, the fault-finder!
You, in two shapes, are hard to please—
Aye, in either shape, hard to please!

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1. Ua, rain. It is suggested this may refer—sarcastically—to the watery secretion in Pele's eyes, as found in old people.
2. Ina, here means consider.
3. Loiloi. If a chief was not pleased or satisfied with a gift, loiloi would express his state of mind.
4. Elua oiwi, literally, two shapes. Pele had many metamorphoses.