Translation of a Maori lyric
Martin Ramsch
can somebody translate the following lyric for me, please?
(Into English or German)
I leart the song during my stay in NZ last March/April as
backpacker, without knowing what the words mean. Should be a love song
or the like...
Po kara kare ana
nga wai o Rotorua
whiti atu koe hine
marino ana eh
eh hine eh
hoki mai ra
ka mate a hau
i tearoa eh
If someone is interested in the tune, I'd try to write it down
or to record my wonderful singing voice (for access via WWW ;-).
Many thanks in advance!
Ehmmm... and a happy new year!
--
Fröhlich grüßend
_ // Martin Ramsch (ae=ä oe=ö ue=ü ss=ß)
\X/ (AE=Ä OE=Ö UE=Ü )
Feel free to answer in German, if you like to... ;-)
PGP public key can be received via finger -l ram...@forwiss.uni-passau.de
Ronit Alon
>can somebody translate the following lyric for me, please?
>(Into English or German)
>I leart the song during my stay in NZ last March/April as
>backpacker, without knowing what the words mean. Should be a love song
>or the like...
> Po kara kare ana
> nga wai o Rotorua
> whiti atu koe hine
> marino ana eh
> eh hine eh
> hoki mai ra
> ka mate a hau
> i tearoa eh
>If someone is interested in the tune, I'd try to write it down
>or to record my wonderful singing voice (for access via WWW ;-).
> _ // Martin Ramsch (
Well Martin my mate you have unfortunately discovered Po Kare Kare Ana,
the most butchered Maori song in all of the land. Everyone from Kiri
Te Kanawa to the NZ America's Cup Challengers have their versions (Sailing
Away uses the Po Kare...tune ) If you sing it to us, I'll return the
favor with my rendition of Edelweiss from the Sound of Music....hope
I've spared us on that one....as far as a translation goes, here it is
is a vague sort of way straight from me and our resident Maori warrior:
Rough waters, the water of Rotorua, cross to me woman, calm, oh woman,
come back to me, I'm dying (i.e. lovesick) for your love.
There are several misspellings in your version which i'm too lazy to
correct at this point but one key one is that in the last line you
should say "te aroha" which means the love....just in case you
ever want to be successful in picking up a Maori maiden of yer own...
Good luck and aroha nui! (Spew, chunder, etc....)
Ronit Alon
Anne Riddick told me two other verses of this song. But she doesnt speak
Maori either so please could you translate them for me too?
Tuhi tuhi taku reta
Tuku atu taku rangi
Kei kite to iwi
Raruraru ai e
Kua pau aku pepe
Kua whati taku pene
Ko taku aroha
Mau tonu ana e
Well Martin mate, No problemo. Our pleasure indeed. We went home and looked
up the second and third verses but they may lose a wee bit in translation...
So here's what they mean:
Choppy seas can be navigated
With your heart as a sail
Don't get seasick
On my account
Come to my feast
Do not tarry
My love boils
Like a mud pool.
-----------------------------------
Kei te kata maua ki tera
Noeline McCaughan
: Hello folks,
: can somebody translate the following lyric for me, please?
: (Into English or German)
: Po kara kare ana
: nga wai o Rotorua
: whiti atu koe hine
: marino ana eh
: eh hine eh
: hoki mai ra
: ka mate a hau
: i tearoa eh
The waves of Rotorua,
were stormy and wild,
calm they became
as you passed by
sweetheart of mine
return once again
my heart is breaking
for you my dear
This scans correctly for singing and is as close as possible to the
original Maori.
: If someone is interested in the tune, I'd try to write it down
: or to record my wonderful singing voice (for access via WWW ;-).
Spare us this!! every kid in N.Z. learns this one at school.
Kia ora
Noeline
Mary Jane Pickering
>
> Well Martin my mate you have unfortunately discovered Po Kare Kare Ana,
> the most butchered Maori song in all of the land. Everyone from Kiri
> Te Kanawa to the NZ America's Cup Challengers have their versions (Sailing
> Away uses the Po Kare...tune ) If you sing it to us, I'll return the
> favor with my rendition of Edelweiss from the Sound of Music....hope
> I've spared us on that one....as far as a translation goes, here it is
> is a vague sort of way straight from me and our resident Maori warrior:
>
> Rough waters, the water of Rotorua, cross to me woman, calm, oh woman,
> come back to me, I'm dying (i.e. lovesick) for your love.
>
> There are several misspellings in your version which i'm too lazy to
> correct at this point but one key one is that in the last line you
> should say "te aroha" which means the love....just in case you
> ever want to be successful in picking up a Maori maiden of yer own...
> Good luck and aroha nui! (Spew, chunder, etc....)
Cynic!!!
You're right - it is the most butchered Maori song in all of the land. But
long before I ever learnt much about maoritanga and other waiata, I knew
this song. In fact, I learnt it largely from a Rolf Harris album my
parents had. So, naturally, having been drummed into me from an early age,
it's the one I know best and love best - especially when I'm living 6500
miles away in LaLa Land here and am desperately homesick. I'm sorry - I
hate popularised songs - a lyric form of Kiwiana I suppose - as much as the
next woman, but they gain a huge significance when you're away from their
source. I received a buzzy bee broach for christmas which means heaps,
even though it is kiwiana through and through, and when I'm alone in my car
in 6 lanes of freeway traffic, I am proud to say that I belt out Po kare
kare ana. That and the few words of Hine e Hine (from Goodnight Kiwi on
TV1 I'm ashamed to admit) that I know. You couldn't post the full song
could you?
When just the sound of te reo maori can make me cry (The Piano was hard to
watch!), this song is kind of important to an ex-pat.
MJ
PS - it's beautiful song, with a very hummable tune - good for someone with
the worst tune memory in the world!
Ross Finlayson
mjpi...@orion.oac.uci.edu (Mary Jane Pickering) wrote:
> PS - it's beautiful song, with a very hummable tune - good for someone with
> the worst tune memory in the world!
Agreed. Po Kare Kare Ana is a beautiful song, but I wonder:
Is it really a *traditional* Maori song?
I.e., was it sung by Maoris prior to European colonization,
or is it a more modern song, influenced by
Western music?
Does anyone know?
Ross.
Ronit Alon
>In article <mjpicker-0...@computrendslciii.book.uci.edu>,
>mjpi...@orion.oac.uci.edu (Mary Jane Pickering) wrote:
>> PS - it's beautiful song, with a very hummable tune - good for someone with
>> the worst tune memory in the world!
>Agreed. Po Kare Kare Ana is a beautiful song, but I wonder:
>Is it really a *traditional* Maori song?
>I.e., was it sung by Maoris prior to European colonization,
Yes it was, according to the tangata whenua at home.
k
Jennifer Mary George
Ross Finlayson <finl...@eng.sun.com> wrote:
[some stuff deleted]
>Po Kare Kare Ana is a beautiful song, but I wonder:
>Is it really a *traditional* Maori song?
>I.e., was it sung by Maoris prior to European colonization,
>or is it a more modern song, influenced by
>Western music?
>
>Does anyone know?
>
> Ross.
Well, relying heavily on what I remember of fifth form music here... I
seem to recall being told that there was basically only "chant-like" music
around before the influence of Europeans. We studied some examples which
melodically consisted mainly of chanting around a single note, varying the
pitch up and down about a tone or maybe a tone and a half, but always coming
back to the same starting pitch. It sounds a little like the intoned-speech
in a welcome etc. (sorry don't know the correct names for these kind of
things) which has recognisable/standard pitched patterns.
I'm sure there must be people around who know more about this than I do,
so I'm open to corrections...
Jenny
James Lawry
>In article <finlayson-1...@tip-mp3-ncs-8.stanford.edu>,
>Ross Finlayson <finl...@eng.sun.com> wrote:
>
>[some stuff deleted]
>
>>Po Kare Kare Ana is a beautiful song, but I wonder:
>>Is it really a *traditional* Maori song?
>>I.e., was it sung by Maoris prior to European colonization,
>>or is it a more modern song, influenced by
>>Western music?
>>
>>Does anyone know?
>>
>> Ross.
>
>
>Well, relying heavily on what I remember of fifth form music here... I
>seem to recall being told that there was basically only "chant-like" music
>around before the influence of Europeans. We studied some examples which
>melodically consisted mainly of chanting around a single note, varying the
>pitch up and down about a tone or maybe a tone and a half, but always coming
>back to the same starting pitch. It sounds a little like the intoned-speech
>in a welcome etc. (sorry don't know the correct names for these kind of
>things) which has recognisable/standard pitched patterns.
>
Kare Ana is an old English tune (hymn? drinking song? I don't know).
Let's face it, it is a western-sounding tune in a Western major scale
with a simple chord sequence that even Status Quo could manage to play.
Even a non-musical expert should have doubts about its authenticity
(in the sense of being pre-European).
The words, on the other hand, are probably pre-European. Trochaic
quadrimeter is the term for the metre, I think (although the tune
messes around with this -- further evidence perhaps that the words
and music are a patchwork effort?).
Nevertheless the song sounds very good. Kiri sang it unaccompanied
as one of the encores in her Auckland waterfront concert two weeks
ago and the effect was simply stunning.
James Lawry.