Lament for Te Iwi-ika
Seeking Te iwi-ika's death, The voices of the multitudes in the world Mount up, speaking bitterly 8 . Let the man be dead How you make my pain increase, So that I turn about in sorrow! Oh my husband is lost You are lost to me always! Set out on the wide path! Straight is the road of Hine-titama, Tahi-kumea, and Tahu-whaera The path goes straight to death! I had thought there would be a man to follow, But he disappeared through the doorway Of Poutererangi, Poutukutia’s house! Husband, you are gone from me always! When he visits this world again His heart is cruelly twisted, as is mine
My heart is cruelly broken, Husband, because of you! Tane made his way upwards To the sky of Rehua above, Tane made his way straight To the sky of Tama-i-waho, Tane made his way up slantingly To the sky to Rangi-whakaupoko-above The lordly company remains always In the last of the skies! Tane came down to this land And saw how it might be made fertile His mainland here and people grew up, To live in the world of light!
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/TUTANG19830401.2.17
Bibliographic details
Tu Tangata, Issue 11, 1 April 1983, Page 29
Word Count
192Lament for Te Iwi-ika Tu Tangata, Issue 11, 1 April 1983, Page 29
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