Te Pito Te Henua, or Easter Island: Text of the Easter Island Tablet: Ate-a-renga-hokan iti Poheraa
(Plates XLIV and XLV.) Ka tagi, Renga-a-manu ---- hakaopa; Ita haga ta poapatu ---- O te hoa! Ta hi tiena ita have. Who is sorrowing? It is Renga-a-manu Hakopa?
"Ate-a-renga-hokan iti poheraa."
LOVE SONG.
Chiu runarame a ita metua.
Ka ketu te nairo hihi ---- O to hoa!
Eaha ton tiena ---- e te hoa ---- e!
Kahii te riva forani ---- O te hoa e!
Auwe ka tagi ati ---- u ---- a ---- iti iti.
Eha ton tiena ---- e ta hoa ---- e.
Horoa ita have.
Horoa moni e fahiti;
Ita ori miro;
Ana piri atu;
Ana piri atu;
Ana taga atu.ENGLISH TRANSLATION.
NATIVE LOVE SONG,
A red branch descended from her father.
Open thine eyelids, my true love.
Where is your brother, my love?
At the feast in the Bay of Salutation
We will meet under the feathers of your clan.
She has long been yearning after you.
Send your brother as a mediator of love between us,
Your brother who is now at the house of my father.
O, where is the messenger of love between us?
When the feast of drift-wood is commemorated
There we will meet in loving embrace.
OBVERSE OF EASTER ISLAND WOODEN TABLET "ATE A-RENGA-HOKAN ITI POHERAA"
(From photographs in possession of Bishop of Axieri. From photograph by Paymaster W. J. Thompson, U. S. N.)
REVERSE OF EASTER ISLAND WOODEN TABLET "ATE A-RENGA-HOKAN ITI POHERAA "
(From photographs in possession of Bishop of Axieri. From photograph by Paymaster W. J. Thompson, U. S. N.)