Poetry of the Maori
Translations by Barry Mitcalfe
Paul's Book Arcade, 1961. 12/6d.

reviewed by Peter Fairbrother

Mr Mitcalfe is to be complimented on producing this book of translations of Maori poetry. There is a keen demand from both pakeha and Maori for printed waiata, with translations and notes. Much research and enquiry is necessary before one can even put pen to paper concerning one waiata; the time and effort that have gone into producing a booklet of twenty-two poems deserves praise and admiration. This is a book every New Zealander should have, and have read.

It is remarkably free from misprints—an occasional ake for aku catches the eye. There are other words one wonders about, but waiata manuscripts are seldom free of spelling mistakes which seem to be perpetuated.

The introduction covers all the universal aspects of poetry and relates them to Maori poetry. This comprehensive essay on Maori poetry suffers from the same cryptic quality which makes Maori poetry hard to translate. Some of Mr Mitcalfe's statements could so easily be contradicted; though if we knew his reasoning, we might agree in part. For instance, he reiterates that the Maori life of old was restricted and monotonous—as one who has hunted pork and pigeon, bobbed, gaffed, and trapped eels, dived for kina, dug pipi and tuatua, grown, harvested and stored kumara, I fail to understand why Mr Mitcalfe says a life close to nature is monotonous—and Mr Mitcalfe doesn't tell us why. And in what sense is the imagery of nature restricting? Is a tractor a more effective symbol than thunder? Or a power pylon than a tree?

Nevertheless, this introduction is a good essay on the subject and should be carefully and critically read. If careful reading provokes argument, then it only confirms that it is a good essay.

In his introduction and ‘translator's note’ Mr Mitcalfe adequately outlines the difficulties that any translator of poetry has, i.e. (1) how much literal translation? (2) how much interpretation? (3) will the translation resemble in form the poetry of either language, or neither? The other difficulty with Maori to English is the freedom of reference in Maori to things unmentionable in English.

The cover, title page and the introduction all refer to the English versions as translations, and as such we must judge them. Often in the introduction we are told that the poetry of the Maori is cryptic:

(i)	‘Translation is difficult … language was shorn of all superfluity.’
(ii)	‘Most of these devices of Maori style tend to compress, to make the language cryptic …’

Yet again we are told that:

(iii)

‘It is in the transfer of impact, of the manysided image, not simply of the superficial meaning, that most Maori translators fall short.’

From this we would expect to find the English translations much longer than the Maori, but instead we find that most English versions are the same length as the Maori originals, some divided into the same stanza pattern. To the non-Maori speaker this implies line-by-line translation, and the other implication is that no attempt has been made to expand the cryptic style—or else much of the meaning has been left out. From the form of the translation one is entitled to believe that matotoru in XV means ‘small number’. In IV an interested pakeha will find tapa occurs three times with a different translation each time, but no explanation is offered.

One might excuse the leaving out of some of the meaning were it not accompanied by the addition of concepts not in the original. We can search in vain to find Maori words to mean (or imply) ‘Your blood soaks into the wood,’ in XIV. Where are the Maori words for ‘pain’ and ‘death’ in XVIII?

The English versions of X, XII, XIII, XIV, XVII, XVIII seem distorted by these two things—leaving out what is there, and adding what is not.

Those that seem to me to be adequate translations and adequate interpretations are VIII, IX, XI, XVI, XIX, XXI, XXII.

Mr Mitcalfe says:

(iv)	‘[This collection] is intended simply as an insight into the ancient culture of this land.’

Yet he fails to make clear the significance of the symbolism of papa totara in II and XIV. This and other oversights make one wonder if, when he says ‘[Maori] poetic imagery was inevitably restricted in scope,’ he does so, not appreciating himself much of the symbolism.

Surely, if he wants to give an insight into the concepts he would translate ‘He rongo toa mai, hau ana ki te tahatu o te rangi’ as ‘Your fame, spread even to the edge of the sky’, rather than the weak sounding ‘Your courage cries to the empty skies.’ (VII)

Indeed, over all, the translations seem to lack the vigour of the original.

‘Bold Tiki!

Soft Tiki!’ seems hardly adequate translation for ‘Tiki; ka riri Tiki,

Tiki, ka reka Tiki.’ (XI)

The first five lines of English in XX give us an insight, not into Maori culture, but into the

Victorian-spawned moral attitudes of the New Zealand pakeha.

As a final point of criticism, let us take Mr Mitcalfe's statement:

(v)	‘I have selected only those poems which can be isolated from their primitive cultural context.’

Why then, include XV?

Is it that he has failed to see the rich allusions, the ‘many-sided images’? Or is it an attempt to do the impossible, like Maui?

It seems that in many poems, Mr Mitcalfe has translated the nouns and verbs, ignoring the vital little words, then, using the images so obtained, written his own poem. (How else could he arrive at ‘the eyes’ from no mata?) If the book were titled ‘Poems by Barry Mitcalfe on themes derived from Maori poetry’ my criticisms would cease to be valid, but the cover asserts translations, and as translations they must be judged. The introduction and translator's note provide the standards of criticism for this and any other subsequent book of translations.

Taking Mr Mitcalfe's statements (i. to v.) as a basis of judgement, it seems he has failed to expand the compressed, cryptic Maori, to give us the ‘many-sided image’, to give us an insight (we got a glimpse, perhaps). But I say this knowing the size of the task he undertook. It is a task that needs doing, as so many of us realize, and it really is quite an urgent task, too. There are few of us capable of doing it, fewer willing to do it, and, of these, few with the time to do it. So I repeat, ‘Congratulations, Mr Mitcalfe,’ for pioneering this field, and giving us a book to be enjoyed by the dilettante, to serve as a challenge and a standard to potential compilers of similar anthologies.

New Zealand Politics in Action:
The 1960 General Election

by R. M. Chapman, W. K. Jackson,
and A. V. Mitchell
Oxford University Press, 43/6

This is a detailed and scholarly examination of the last general election in New Zealand. It analyses very closely all the available official documentation on the subject, and also considers the results of a number of special surveys arranged by the authors who are all university lecturers.

They were fortunate in that in New Zealand, unlike most other countries, election results are published in polling-booth units which cover only a small area. This means that it is possible to find out very exactly in what ways different sorts of people vote.

The results of this inquiry are fascinating to say the least. The book demolishes, with quiet, lucid precision, a number of very widely accepted ideas. For instance, it demonstrates that the so-called ‘floating vote’ (the people who are regarded as being likely to keep changing their minds politically from one election to the next) is not nearly as important a factor as has been thought. Changes in the social composition of an electorate—areas ‘going downhill’ or becoming ‘better class’, families moving from the centre of a city to the suburbs, and so on—usually prove to be responsible for the changing political allegiance of that electorate.

Discoveries such as this have far-reaching practical implications, and are also of great interest to everyone who is curious as to the reasons why people behave as they do.

I have the space here to mention only one other of this book's interesting conclusions. In the chapter devoted to the Maori electorates, the authors have to account for the reasons why the Maori vote for Labour was much lower in 1960 than it previously had been, and why this drop was mostly due to a large increase in the number of Maoris who did not cast a vote.

The author of this chapter considers the possibility that the severe budget of 1958 may have been responsible for this change but decides that the change was too great to have been caused by this alone. After considering other possible reasons, he writes as follows:

‘The conclusion is, I think, inevitable, that the Labour Government's handling of the Maori tour controversy earned it the deep disapproval of Maoris all over New Zealand and in this conflict of loyalties—loyalty to Labour and disapproval of its attitude in this test case—they acted as others act when torn two ways politically, they ceased voting in large numbers.’

M.R.W.

It's Perfectly Easy

by Mary Scott
Pauls Book Arcade, 13/6

For anyone who wishes to escape the stress and strain of city life for an hour or so, this light-hearted book is just the answer.

As usual with Miss Scott's books, ‘Its Perfectly Easy’ is set in the country—this time, by the sea. A young journalist, Helen, and her brother Peter, decide out of necessity to start up a seaside camp on a piece of land inherited by the brother. The situations arising out of this decision are most amusing, and there are many delightful characters in the book—Trina, a young widow who has ‘mislaid’ her husband; John Muir, the owner of the adjoining piece of land, who is an old grump until the end; Handy Andy, whose nickname gives away his part in the story; and last but not least, Venus, a Great Dane bitch, given to the heroine as a parting gift from a Latin admirer.

—B. V. Tong

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Maori apprentices trained by the Auckland Technical Institute showed ‘encouraging results’ in the New Zealand Trades Certification Board's examinations last year, the principal, Mr R. A. Keir, said recently.

He told the board of managers that nine out of 11 electrical trainees passed their examinations, with a top mark of 92 per cent; 11 out of 12 passed in plumbing, the highest mark being 78 per cent; and in carpentry 23 trainees sat and 17 passed, with the highest mark of 86 per cent.

‘All these lads are now employed as apprentices and their employers report most favourably on their progress and bearing,’ said Mr Keir.

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A Maori Methodist minister, the Rev. Rangi Rogers, represented New Zealand at the triennial assembly of the Cook Islands Christian Church from May 1 to 6. Mr Rogers accompanied a party of Cook Islanders on their first fraternal visit to the Reformed Church in Tahiti, and returned to Auckland by aircraft on May 13.

The visit to Tahiti is part of the programme marking the centenary of the arrival of the Paris Missionary Society there.

The business of the Cook Islands was conducted in the Rarotongan language, and the appointment of a Maori delegate meant that he was able to follow the business without an interpreter.

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Mr Frederick Aotearoa Brown, a school teacher who comes from Awanui, Northland, is at present on a year's visit to Denmark, as a member for a Rotary youth exchange scheme. The purpose of this scheme is to give young men a first-hand understanding of people in other lands. Mr Brown, who was sponsored by the Panmure Rotary Club, and whose fare was provided by Rotary, was met by Rotary members in Denmark, billeted with families there and found suitable employment. As with all the young men travelling under this scheme, he is regarded as an ambassador for his country.

Fred Brown is the son of the Reverend Henare Brown and Raiha Brown of Awanui. After attending Kaitaia College and Auckland Training College, Fred taught at Tikitiki Maori District High School, and then at the Matata Primary School near Whakatane. Since 1959 he has been at Tamaki Intermediate School.

A keen sportsman, Fred was one of the instigators in the formation of the Tamaki Senior Rugby Club, who are now firmly established in Auckland rugby. Fred has captained their senior team for 2 years.

—‘Te Rarawa’