NOT in a grove where each tree loses its presence, not singly, do Lehua trees grow; they are Lehua trees only when they grow as I saw them growing at Kapaho, on Hawaii.
When I had seen them before they were mingled with other trees, or they grew singly, a tree here and a tree there: looking upon them I had marvelled that the poets of Hawaii had emblemed their warriors as Lehua trees.
But in Kapaho, on Hawaii, they stand upon lava rock and upon lava crust; some like mighty champions, like Kamehameha, like Umi, stand upon high places, upon mounds and rocks of lava. All stand in ranks as if all the warriors of the Eight Islands stood
spear-ready upon that lava waste.
With branches from the ground they grow. From top to bottom the blossoms show themselves not blossoms but the precious ornaments the warrior decks himself with.
The blossoms show themselves amongst the leaves; they are like scarlet birds, the lost i-i-wi birds, come back to hide and show themselves in the trees beloved of Hiiaka.
They stand upon the lava waste, upon black rocks and amongst black shingles, rank upon rank they grow, like warriors standing erect in the red glow of the volcano.
I saw your lava-mounting trees, and I marvelled no more that your poets had emblemed your warriors as Lehua trees. . . .
They have departed, the warriors whom these trees emblemed. Honey for the birds of heaven, wreaths of red for girls to deck their lovers with these your Lehua trees still bring out of your fire-formed rock, Hawaii.
II
I call on you, beloved
Breast so cold, so cold!
Oh, so cold, I have to say
I ku anu el
How very cold the wind is,
How very cold the dew
Bodies all a-shiver say
I ku anu el
What if this we do
Against wind, cold, and dew
Arms put round each other?
Just so that we need not say
I Ku anu e!
III
From afar it has come, that long-rolling wave; from Tahiti it has come; long has it been coming, that wide-sweeping wave; since the time of Wakea it has been on the way.
Now it plumes, now it ruffles itself. Stand upon your surf-board with the sun to lead you on! Stand! Gird your lom-cloth! The wave rolls and swells higher, the wave that will not break bears you along.
From afar it has come, that long-rolling wave; long has it been coming, that wide-sweeping wave. And now it bears you towards us, upright upon your board.
The wave-ridden waves dash upon the island; the deep-sea coral is swept in-shore; the long-rolling wave, the wide-sweeping wave comes on.
Glossy is your skin and undrenched; the wave-feathers fan the triumphing surf-rider; with the speed of the white tropic-bird you come to us.
We have seen the surf at Puna; we have seen a triumphing surfrider: Na-i-he is his name.
IV
The old back-turning world has passed him by,
The world that left Columbus in his chains,
And Belisarius begging from his curb,
And Clown Grimaldi weeping lonely tears!
But he knew not these names that mean to us
Fortune's wheel turned: his Columbus sailed
Up the Pacific in canoes were hollowed
In Hawaiki with the greenstone axes,
In Hawaiki in the old, lost days.
I found him once, old game-cock on the roost,
Watching with shuttered eye, and had him take me
Where Laka was not
Laka the goddess of the green-branched altar,
Where he was master of a dance was merely
Bellies like millstones turning; yet he sat there
Like some great virtuoso who's once more
Before his audience; he wore the ihma wreath,
And from the ipu, from the gourd he rattled,
Came sounds as strange as echoes
Came sounds like echoes from Hawaiian caves. .
. . . Far, far within the dance is for the King,
The wreaths are smelling like an isle of flowers,
And like an isle of sea-birds rising up,
The dancers move, and he is there, the Master!
The crocus-yellow ilima grows beside
His grave: 'tis where canoes once sailed
For Bolotua and the Southern Seas;
His house is overgrown that quiet house
That had an old man sleeping on its mats.
V
The sign is given; mighty the sign: Tapu!
All murmurs now, speech, voice,
Subdue: inviolable let evening be.
Inviolable and consecrate:
Edgeways and staggering descends
The sun; rain vanishes;
A bonus of bright light comes back.
Hawaii keeps the ordinance: Tapu!
Even far Tahiti now is still, perhaps.
The Island's shelter-giving houses stand;
The Chief withdraws, the sacred cup is his;
The mothers call on Kuhe as they give
Their babes to sleep. O early slumber
Of the heavenly company thou art indeed!
O Ku, O Lono, O Kane, they are yours
The evening hours (subdue
All murmurs now, speech, voice;
Inviolate let evening be).
It is evening; it is hallowed for being that:
Let tumult die within us all: Tafu!
The spies of heaven, the stars return: Tapul
And peaceful heaven covers peaceful earth.
