A Lament for Absent Ones.

This song is said to have been the chant of Te Kooti when he was in exile in Chatham Island, 1866–68. It is a fragment of a lament composed by an earlier singer, a chief of Taupo.

Blow soft, ye northern breezes,
With love and sorrow laden,
Ye fill my soul with sadness
For kinsfolk far away,
For those beyond dread Paerau's range,
The grave. What eye beholds them there?

Where are my friends of other days,
The days of my youth and fame?
They're separated far from me,
My pride is shorn away.

Rain on, O rain! Unceasing,
Downpouring like a torrent;
As falls the rain's cascade,
So flow my tears.
Sleep on, O Wano!
In thy grave at Tirau,
Beyond yon mountain ridge,
Where the high-woods shade our olden home.

Return, my soul, to the soft soothing waters,
The great plashing hot-springs of Tokaanu,
The pools wherein my kinsfolk laved their limbs,
The people that I love.