C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Song of Reproof
By Tahitian Literature
Translation of John LaFarge
A
Like the crash of thunder
And flashes of lightning.
The rays of the midday sun
Surround the standard of the king,
The king of the thousand skies.
Honor the standard
Of the king of the thousand skies!
In the presence of Vehiatua.
The rebels Teieie and Tetumanua,
They broke the king’s standard,
And Oropaa is troubled.
If your crime had but ended there!
The whole land is laid prostrate.
Of the standard of thy king,
Broken by the people of Taiarapu,
By whom we are all destroyed.
Thou bringest the greatest of armies
To the laying of stones
Of the temple of Mahaiatea….
Thou hast broken the standard of the king.
Taiarapu has caused
The destruction of us all.
The approach of the front rank
Has loosened the decoration.
One murderous hand is stretched,
And another murderous hand:
Two armies in and two out.
If you had but listened
To the command of Amo
Calling to the Oropaa—
“Let us take our army
By canoe and by land!
We have only to fear
Matitaupe and the dry reef of the Purionu.
Of Pairi Temaharu and Pahupua.”
The coming of the great army of Taiarapu
Has swept Papara away,
And drawn its mountains with it.
Thou hast sinned, Purahi,
Thou and Taiarapu.
Thou hast broken the standard of the king,
And hast caused the destruction of us all.