MELE NO KA PUNI LILELILE

Eia e ka lono ua hiki mai,

I lawea mai e ka makani Kona,

Ike ia ai na hana poholalo,

A na muhee o ka Aina,

Puni wale i ka mali leo panai,

Kuai i ke Ola me ka Uhane,

Ua paa na maka i ke Kala,

I ka mea lilelile a ka haole,

Ua like me Iuda kumakaia,

Hoomaewaewa i kona Haku,

Aloha ole i kona onehanau;

A i puka mai ai i keia Ao,

Ike ai i ka la he mea mehana;

Hanu ai i ke Ea o ka Aina,

Haina ia mai ana ka puana,

No ka poe puni wale i ka lilelile.

Maluihikoloheikahuaneneakapoeowaolani.

[There are not only patriotic compositions that laud and encourage, but there are also those like this one here which ridicule and disparage. This one goes something like:]

A SONG FOR THOSE WHO COVET SHINY THINGS.

The news has arrived,

Carried by the Kona breeze,

Witnessed are the deeds of deceit,

By the squids¹ of the Land,

Fawning after the sweet talk of reciprocity,

Selling away Life and Soul,

Eyes set on Riches,

That shiny thing of the haole,

Just like Judas the traitor,

Scorning his Lord,

With no aloha for his homeland;

If he’d come forth into the Light,

He’d see that the sun is a thing of warmth,

He’d breathe in the Ea² of the Land.

Let the story be told,

Of those who covet shiny things.

Maluihikoloheikahuaneneakapoeowaolani.

¹A squid can swim as easily backward as forward, so you never know if it is coming or going, and is thus used to describe a two-faced person.

²Ea can be seen as a play on the idea of Air as well as Sovereignty.

(Leo o ka Lahui, 2/21/1893, p. 3)

Ka Leo o ka Lahui, Buke II, Helu 646, Aoao 3. Feberuari 21, 1893.