The Modern Touch.

There is a wonderful plenty of Maori poetry in the excellently-compiled souvenir of the Pomare Memorial gathering at Manukorihi, Waitara, recently. There are poems of great beauty and there are many charming ditties written to suit old-fashioned pakeha tunes.

Sir Apirana Ngata's clever hand is discernible in this capital poetry section of the little book.

There is humour, too, in many of them. This is the translation set opposite part of one of the waiatas:

“I never did fancy any lad from Nati; My heart was already lost to one from Taranaki; But beware lest you wed me to things out of date; I'd rather have the latest, the things of to-day.”

(“Nati” signifies the East Coast; a Taranaki girl is speaking.)

But the translation of the last two lines would have been improved had the author made it a literal rendering. The Maori lines printed are:—

“E kore au e pai ki te piki wakena, Engari motoka ka piki atu au, e.”

The exact English meaning is:—“I don't want to climb into the wagon; I'd rather ride in a motor-car.”

There is nothing wrong with that as an expression of modern tastes. No old farm wagon for the Maori girl any more than for her pakeha cousin.