Po! Po!

Pō! Pō!
E tangi ana tama ki te kai māna!
Waiho, me tiki ake ki te Pou-a-hao-kai,
Hei ā mai te pakake ki uta rā,
Hei waiū mō tama;
Kia hōmai e tō tupuna e Uenuku.
Whakarongo! Ko te kūmara ko Pari-nui-te-ra.
Ka hikimata te tapuae o Tangaroa,
Ka whaimata te tapuae o Tangaroa,
Tangaroa! Ka haruru!

Ka noho Uru ka noho i a Ngangana;
Puta mai ki waho rā ko Te Aotu,
Ko Te Aohore, ko Hinetuahoanga
Ko Tangaroa! Ko te Whatu o Poutini, e!

Kei te Kukunetanga mai
I Hawaiki ko te āhua ia,
Ko Māui-wharekino ka noho i a Pani,
Ka kawea ki te wai o Monariki
Mā Onehunga, mā Onerere,
Mā te piere, mā te matata
Te pia tangi wharau, ka hoake
Ki runga rā, te Pīpī-wharauroa,
Nā Whena koe, e Waho e!
Tuatahi, e Waho e!

Tuarua, ka topea i reira
Ko te Whatanui, ko te Whataroa, ko te tī

 

Po! Po!

Po! Po!
My son is crying for food!
Wait until it is brought from the pillars-of-netted-seafood,
And the whale is driven to the shore
To give you milk, my son.
It will be given by your ancestor Uenuku.
Listen! The kumara is from the Great Cliffs of the Sun.
Tangaroa is striding there,
Tangaroa is striding there,
Tangaroa! Listen to the roar!

It was Uru who dwelt with Ngangana;
Their offspring were Te Aotu,
Te Aohore, Hinetuahoanga,
Tangaroa, and the Stone of Poutini.

The beginning, the primal pregnancy,
Was at Hawaiki,
When Maui-whare-kino was married to Pani,
She who was taken to the waters of Monariki
For Onehunga, for Onerere,
For the piere, for the matata,
The ‘first whimper from the shelter’.
Giving birth to Pipiwharauroa.
You are of Whena, O Waho!
Thus the first part, O Waho!

 

 

haere,
Nā Kohuru, nā Paeaki,
Nā Turiwhatu, nā Rakaiora.
Ko Waiho anake te tangata i rere noa
I te ahi rūrā a Rongomaracroa,
Ko te kākahu nō Tū, ko te Rangikaupapa,
Ko te tātua i riro mai
I a Kanoa, i a Matuatonga.
Tēnei te manawa ka puritia,
Tēnei te manawa ka tāwhia;
Kia haramai tona hokowhitu i te ara.
Ka kīia Ruatapu e Uenuku ki te tama meamea,
Ka tahuri i te Huripureiata,
Ka whakakau tama i a ia.
Whakarere iho ana te kakau o te hoe,
Ko Maninitua, ko Maniniaro.
Ka tangi te kura, ka tangi wiwini!
Ka tangi te kura, ka tangi wawana!
Ko Hakirirangi ka ū kei uta
Te kōwhai ka ngaora ka ringitia te kete
Ko Manawaru, ko Araiteuru,
Ka kitea e te tini, e te mano.
Ko Makauri anake i mahue atu
I waho i Toka-ahuru;
Ko te peka i rere mai ki uta rā
Hei kura mō Māhaki;
Ko Mangamoteo, ko Uetanguru,
Ko te kōiwi ko Rongorapua,
Waiho me tiki ake
Ki te kūmara i a Rangi.
Ko Pekehāwani ka noho i a Rehua;
Ko Ruhiterangi ka tau kei raro,
Te ngahuru tikotikoiere,
Ko Poutūterangi te mātahi o te tau,
Te putunga o te hinu, e tama!

 

Of the second part is the felling there
Of the timbers for the posts at the sacred place, and the perch of bird snares,
For Kohuru, for Paeaki,
For Turiwhatu, for Rakaiora.
Waiho was the only one who fled
From the scattered fires of Rongo-maraeroa.
The garment of Tu, Te Rangikaupapa,
The belt which was brought hither
By Kanoa and Matuatonga.
Hence men's hearts are apprehensive,
Hence men's hearts are fearful,
Lest his band of warriors appear on the road.
Ruatapu was called a bastard by Uenuku,
And [in revenge] overturned the canoe [with his brothers,] Huri-pureiata,
When that son swam away.
Hurriedly he put aside the handle of the paddle,
Maninitua and Maniniaro.
The noble one cries, cries in fear!
The noble one cries, cries in terror!
It was Hakirirangi who reached the shore
And at the time of the flowering of the kowhai, emptied her kumara - planting basket
At the kumara plantations Manawaru and Araiteuru,
To be seen by the myriads, by the thousands.
Only the tree Makauri was left behind
Out at the reef Toka-ahuru,
The branch of which was cast ashore
As a treasure for Mahaki.
The rivers Mangamoteo and Uetanguru [nurture]
The contents of Rongorapua.
Wait until there is brought
The kumara from the heavens.
The stars Pekehawani and Rehua married;
Their child was Ruhiterangi, alighting here below.
Hence the bounteous harvest-time
When the star Poututerangi signals the season of the first-fruits,
And the calabashes overflow with fat, my son!

Notes on the Song

Po! Po! is probably a shortened form of ‘Potiki! Potiki!’ Oriori were often composed for the potiki (youngest child) in the family. In the second line the words ‘my son’ refer to the child for whom the oriori was composed.

Pillar-of-netted-seafood (Pou-a-hao-kai) is a figure of speech used of seafoods being collected for a feast.

Milk: Elsdon Best notes that the expression waiu is sometimes used with reference to food which when eaten by the mother, was believed to help her feed her child.

Uru, Ngangana and their children Te Aotu and Te Aohore are mythical personages.

Tangaroa is the god of the sea and of fish.

The Stone of Poutini is an expression for greenstone, which in traditional accounts is often referred to as a fish. Hine-tuahoanga is the personification of the kinds of stones used as grindstone, for example in working greenstone.

The mythical personage Maui-whare-kino was married to Pani; he stole the kumara from Whanui in the heavens and mated it with his wife, who then gave birth to the kumara in the waters of Monariki. In the next few lines there appear to be references to ritual matters concerned with the kumara and its origin, but the exact meaning of these expressions is uncertain.

The posts mentioned in the second line of the next verse were the two posts erected at the tuaahu, the sacred place or altar where many religious rituals took place.

Rongo is a mythical personage, the god of the cultivation of food and other peacetime pursuits. Rongo-maraeroa, one form of the name, is also a sacred name for the kumara. The significance of the lines in which the word occurs is uncertain.

Tu is a shortened form of Tu-mata-uenga, god of war. Matuatonga is sometimes said to have arrived on board the Takitimu canoe. According to other accounts, Matuatonga is the name of the belt in which the kumara was brought to Aotearoa.

Ruatapu and Uenuku (who is also mentioned in the sixth line of the song) are personages who according to a famous myth, lived in Hawaiki, one of the homelands of the Maori. Insulted by his father Uenuku, Ruatapu sought revenge by overturning at sea the canoe which carried his many noble kinsmen. One of them, Paikea, escaped to Aotearoa in the form of a whale (in other accounts, riding on a whale) and landed on the East Coast.

Maninitua and Maniniaro occur in the myth of Pourangahua as the kumara digging-sticks which he brought back from Hawaiki, together with the kumara itself, in his journey on the back of the Great Bird of Ruakapanga.

Hakirirangi is said to have arrived on the Horouta canoe, and to have brought the kumara with her. She was expert in kumara lore and knew well how to plant it at the time of the flowering of the kowhai.

Manawaru and Araiteuru were names of kumara plantations at Turanga (Gisborne).

Makauri is the name of a kahika tree (white pine) said to have grown at the bottom of the sea from the feathers which Pourangahua plucked from his bird when he was flying home with the kumara. A branch of the tree became the property of Mahaki, ancestor of Te Aitanga-a-Mahaki tribe. Toka-ahuru is a reef out from the shore at Turanga.

Mangamoteo and Uetanguru are rivers at Turanga. According to some accounts Rongo-rapua is the name of a belt in which the kumara reached this country.

The last line refers to the fact that autumn is also the time when birds and rats are fat.

A Fairy's Love Song

In the last issue of ‘Te Ao Hou’ there was published the music and text of a love song said to have been sung by a fairy chief named Te Rangipouri. The text has been recorded in several places, notably in Apirana Ngata's ‘Nga Moteatea’ (song no. 38), but despite the notes given in this collection and elsewhere, there are some obscure references in the song.

Since Te Ao Hou's translation was published we have found a story in which this song occurs. Published only in English, it is a translation of one of the Maori manuscripts collected by Edward Shortland in the middle years of the last century, and it appears in his book ‘Maori Religion and Mythology’ pp. 47–50.

This story, which tells how the humans won back the woman and through their command of magic defeated the fairies' attempt to recapture her, explains most of the obscurities in the song.

M.O.