Volume 6 / Part 2 — A Lamentation for Young Kaahumanu.
Reading edition
By Niau.
When thou standeth the wings of that bird swoop,
The companion, the wife is taken;
I can not live; the rain by day is lessened,
The rain by night is greater.
Coming to get me that we may go; we are going.
Short of breath, waiku is the disease; 15.
The asthma closes the chest;
When breathing ceased the power of thought fled, life ended.
Struggled in the path with an indefinite number;
The path not accustomed to the presence of the god.
A woman died, died at Waimea;
She lies alone by the water of Makaweli, 25.
By herself, without a mate.
A guardian for the land;
A barrier to hinder the mischievous.
When the companion is gone, cold is the breast; 35.
I sorrowed for the love of her.
And defied the power of Kauakahi.
The rain drops fell, the heavy rain of Kane;
To be a soul-body in my presence, 45.
But no; only a shadow of the wife,
Of my wife who hath gone.
I grieve for our union; 50.
We were united until her departure,
I turned and she had vanished;
I felt along the walls where she was wont to dwell;
The chiefess assembled her retainers.
Hard was the time upon the earth,
Love to you, love to us, love of the husband for the wife. 60.
She sorrowed for your going; for your leaving us. 65.
She was her mother.
Living on the lands of the chiefs and occupying them
When thou goest on pleasure bent, 70.
Leaving thy companion, the husband.
Take constant care of the wife, the steadfast companion of the cold.
Hers is the soul which has gone on; 80.
Just wandering around on the pili plain;
With a deal of undue haste,
And when to the house inhabited by god; thus my child 85.
Left her companionship of the husband
[And] followed after the godly companion.
The spirits met in the rain of Koolau,
Seen by the gentle haao rain.
As the bonds are severed the lehua rain falls. 95.
The spirit lighted down, there was calm,
Noisily heard at Kaiwikui.
The sound of the voice is of my soul-wife; it is she, 100.
The spirit is idling in the calm;
[Like] the shadow of the spirit of another child
Of Kamalalawalu, whose is the soul of a man,
When the hills are past the fatiguing ends;
To see the habitation of the gods,
The soul rose up at Kalamaula;
The wind-break of Kekaha
Is the barrier of the wind.
The voice of my soul-wife, it is she!
The goddess whose face is wet with the surf-spray of Kaahe,
Surf-riding woman at Pueo;
Guard of the surf at Kanaha;
And guarded the yard of Pohakuauli, of Kahiwauli.
Thou dwellest in this enclosure, a decaying body.
[If] at the mountains, kill him by a fall off the cliff,
The priest who has killed my child.
[If] at the sea, kill him by the mouth of a shark,
The priest who has killed my child. 150.
When he bathes in the water [let him] drown,
The priest who has caused the death of my child.
When he eats food [let him] die,
When he eats fish [let him] die. 155.