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Solo Ole Va
Rollers flooding, rollers dashing,
Rollers fighting, rollers clashing; -
The sweep of waters and the extension of waves,
Surging high, but breaking not; -
Waves reclining; waves dispersing;
Waves agreeable; waves that cross not;
Waves frightsome; waves leaping over;
Waves breaking; waves warring;
Waves roaring; waves upheaving;
The peopled waves; waves from east to west.
Whose companion is the wandering current.
Rollers flooding, rollers dashing,
Rollers fighting, rollers clashing; -
The sweep of waters and the extension of waves,
Surging high, but breaking not; -
Waves reclining; waves dispersing;
Waves agreeable; waves that cross not;
Waves frightsome; waves leaping over;
Waves breaking; waves warring;
Waves roaring; waves upheaving;
The peopled waves; waves from east to west.
Whose companion is the wandering current.
'O Tagaloa, who sittest at the helm (of affairs),
Tagaloa's (bird, the Tuli) desires to rest;
Tuli from the ocean must rest in the heavens;
These waves below affright my breast.
Where is the land which first upsprang?
Great Manu'a first uprose.
Beats on (Manu'a) rock his well-loved waves;
On it the Moon's desired light looks down;
The Sun, like statue, changeless found,
(Darts his refulgent beams around).
The waters in their place appear;
The sea, too, occupies its sphere;
The heaven ascends, the sky is clear.
To visit (the scene) Tagaloa comes down;
To the west, to the east, his wailing cry he sends,
A strong desire to have a place whereon to stand
Possesses him; (he bids the lands arise).
Savai'i with its high mountain then sprang up,
And up sprang Fiti and all the Tongan group;
Arose Savai'i; and afterwards,
The Tongan group and the group of Fiji,
Together with the group of small lands;
With the home of Alamisi (the two Samatas Arose)
- Samata-inland and Samata-by-the-sea;
The seats of Tagaloa, and his footstool.
But great Manu'a first grew up -
The resting place of Tagaloa -
After that, all other groups of islands.
Abide in thy mountains, these visit and rest;
abide, Tagaloa, on Manua's high crest,
But fly now and then to thy group in the west;
To measure and compare the space
Which lies between, from place to place.
The ocean between is long and breezy;
Terrific waves affright Tagaloa;
'Oh for a little coral strand.' thus to heaven he cries;
Upolu, a very small bit of rock,
And Tutuila, a little stony land,
Are isles that thereupon immediately arise;
Where chiefs in after times may find a place of rest;
And gods, tho' pinched for room, have many a feast.
And hither came from heaven the peopling vine,
Which gave to Tutuila its inhabitants,
And to Atua and A'ana, with Le-tuamasaga in Upolu.
The bodies only move, they have no breath,
Nor heart's pulsation.
The godlike Tagaloa learns (in heaven) above,
The sacred vine to gender life has now begun,
But that its offspring only wriggle in the sun;
No legs, no arms they have;
No head, no face,
Nor heart's pulsation
Tagaloa then, descending to the west,
Speaks but the word and it is done:
These fruits, the product of the vine are worms,
But them I fashion into member'd forms,
To each of you from above I now impart a will
Opacity must be the portion of your bodies still,
Your faces, they must shine, (I so ordain),
That they may Tagaloa entertain
When he comes down to walk this earth again.
O Great Fiti, with all thy eastern isles.
And thy mountains scattered throng,
You each and all to Great Manu'a look:-
Fiti, Tonga, the Slippery Rock,
The spreading Masoa
Which raised again the fallen heavens;
Savai'i, leafy like the teve,
In vain displays its lofty range;
She cannot supplant the firm seed stone of Manu'a
(Their father) the Stone, and (their mother) the Earth.
The Rock produced and sooncould show
At least ten hundred sons.
Let none the truth again say (in unbelief)
Alele was Manu'a's first known chief;
The son of Tagaloa; he wrought unrighteous judgment.
Where is that land which first upsprang?
I answer, great Manu'a first upsrang.
The eastern point Saua is thy eastern bound
At Ofu and Tufue'e thy west limits are found.
Descend, ye gods, to the fono of Confusion.
But rest quietly at the fono of Tranquility.
Here Tagaloa the Builder's council was convened,
The council of the circle of the chiefs on high -
While thus he spake a solemn silence reigned:
'Let the Builder have the first kava cup in the circle,
Then perfect will be the ship whose keel is laid!
To heaven's disposal leave all fish besides
But offering unto Tagaloa made must be bonito.
Let fisher Losi ply his craft the wide seas o'er,
But offer unto heaven the choicest of his store.
And ye of Tagaloa's race, when ye desire to meet,
May make the heavens your noble council seat,
Or fono of the Rock, or where Confusion reigned,
Or peaceful fono which Tranquility is named;
The fono of Asia, the fono of Assembly,
Or of Lologo, or Pule-faatasi.
At fono of Tranquility, your councils you must hold,
When ye build ship or house;
But whether ship or house be first, (this is my will).
In heaven will Tagaloa sit at peace, with his peers,
But the Builder and his workmen will come down.
Pray, who was first, a work so honoured to begin!
The first to own a ship was great Manu'a's king.
This errand brought the people of the Builder down -
A class of workmen as ten thousand known,
With Architect-in-Chief, but one alone.
The rafter-breaking god came down,
(With wrath inflamed and angry trown;)
Alas! my building all complete
Is scattered in confusion great.
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