Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The Maori: Yesterday and To-day

“My Eyes are like the Flax-Flowers.”

“My Eyes are like the Flax-Flowers.”

This love-chant is a favourite among the poi-girls on the West Coast; it is sung to a haunting tune which may have been of pakeha origin but which has been adapted and altered as to time and intervals until it is thoroughly Maori:

Whakapukepuke ai au—e
Te roimata i aku kamo,
He rite ki te ngaru
Whati mai i waho—e!
Taku turanga ake
I te taha o te rata,
Ka titiro atu
Ki te akau roa—e!
Ko te rite i aku kamo
Ki te pua korari;
Ka pupuhi te hau,
Ka maringi te wai—e!
Ko te rite i ahau
Ki te rau o te wiwi,
E wiwiri nei
He nui no te aroha—e!
He aroha taku hoa
I huri ai ki te moe,
Hei hari atu
Ki raro Reinga e te tau—e!

(Translation.)
Like a flood, ah me!
My tears stream down;
They burst like ocean-waves
Breaking yonder on the shore, Ah me!
Lonely I sit
Beneath my rata tree,
Gazing, ever gazing
On the long sea-strand, Ah me!
My weeping eyes
Are like the drooping flax-flowers;
When the wind rustles them
Down fall the honey showers Ah me!
I'm like the wind-blown rushes,
The wiwi bending in the gale,
Quivering, shaking, trembling
With the strength of my love Ah me!
Once love was my companion
When I turned me to slumber;
It was the spirit of my love
That joined me in the land of dreams.