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Legends of the Maori

A Song of Raukawa. — The Dread Crags of the Brothers

page 298

A Song of Raukawa.

The Dread Crags of the Brothers.

This chant (from the old man Aperahama, of Wainui, Paekakariki) was sung about eighty years ago by a young woman named Tuhupu, for her husband, who had sailed away across Cook Strait—the Maori Sea of Raukawa—in the war-canoe of the chief Hetaraka Patutahi. It contains reference to the old custom of covering the eyes of tauhou or strangers to those waters with a kopare or wreath-screen, consisting usually of three karaka leaves strung together. This was done on board canoes passing near the rocky islets now known as The Brothers; the Maori name is Nga-Whatu–Kaiponu. A dread tapu pertained to those surf-washed dark crags, and rough and dangerous seas were often encountered there. Strangers in the canoes were apt to be dismayed by the high waves, and so they were blindfolded (koparetia) until the worst part of Raukawa was crossed. They could use their paddles, but could not gaze around them.

Ao ma uru
E tauhere mai ra
Na runga ana mai
Te hiwi kei Te Tawake.*
Katahi te aroha
Ka makuru i ahau
Ki te tau ra
E nui ai te itinga.
Pirangi noa ake
Ki te kimi moutere,
Kia utaina au
Te ihu o Te Rewarewa,
Te waka o Patutahi,
E whiu ki tawhiti;
Kia koparetia te rerenga i Raukawa,
Kia huna iho,
Kei kite ai Nga-whatu,
Kia hipa ki muri ra
Ka titiro kau,
Kia noho taku iti
Te koko ki Karauru-pe,
Nga mahi a Kupe,
I topetopea iho.
Kei whea te tane
I rangi ai te itinga?
Mo nga riri ra,
Ka rukea ki ahau,
Waiho i roto nei,
Ka nui te ngakau—i—i!

[Translation.]

Far o’er the western sea
A cloud clings to Tawake’s peak,
It drifts this way, it brings to me
Fond thoughts of one who’s far away.
Of him to whom I was betrothed
While but a little one.
Oh, would that I could go with thee
Across the swelling sea
To seek some island of our own!
I’d seat me in Te Rewa’s bows,
Te Patutahi’s great canoe,
And sail so far away;
I’d bind mine eyes so carefully
To cross Raukawa’s rolling sea
Lest I imprudently behold
The dread crags of Nga-whatu.
And when we’d safely crossed the Strait,
And free to gaze around again,
I’d see the shores of Cloudy Bay—
The wondrous works of Kupe,
Our ancestor who sailed these seas,
And severed islands from the main.
But where is now my loved one?
I’m left behind to mourn alone—
My heart swells high with sorrow.

* Te Tawake is a mountain on Rangitoto (D’Urville Island), west of Cook Strait.