Keaomelemele by Moses Manu

Translated by Mary Kawena Pukui and edited by Puakea Nogelmeier 

Here is the bold and magical girl of the rarified atmosphere, the one who flew here like a lightning strike in the east and whose brilliance ran to the edges of the earth, the one who tread the Pacific Ocean’s billows, whose royal eyes are adorned by dark clouds and whose dwelling twirls night and day on the fringes of the wind, and who was a noble of those days of yore. . .

Moses Manu entices readers past and present with this introduction to the legend of Keaomelemele, published in thirty-one installments of Ka Nupepa Kuokoa in 1884–85. Most of the translation of Manu’s work presented here is by Mary Kawena Pukui, and her skill in capturing the charm of this legend is unchallenged.

. . . And let us begin the telling at this point.

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