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Kikiki
Kakaka |
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wedding night chant
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TranslationMy apologies for any errors in the translation of this important text. Other writers who are far more knowledgeable in Te Reo have published books about Kikiki, but only one of them has given a translation, and that was a translation of Te Rauparaha's very much altered 1820 adaptation of it. Hopefully this attempt to show the beauty of a near-forgotten literary and cultural treasure will inspire others to make more polished translations. James Cowan, who spent his 1870s childhood on the edge of the King Country and who was a fluent speaker of Maori, informs us that Kikiki Kakaka was used as a wedding and peacemaking song, and on examination we find it contains sexually explicit phrases that would be used in a intimate wedding-night song; kau, taku tara, tarawahia, rere ure. So the method used in translating this chant was to use Williams’ dictionary and the Whakareo online lexicon to find out whether other phrases might also be metaphors for a story of developing sexual intimacy. These phrases were noted. Kikiki = indistinct, murmuring,
an idiot, stuttering => love-talk. SourcesJames Cowan, (Tohunga), "The Wisdom of the Maori," The New Zealand Railways Magazine, 1 Feb 1935. In the 1930s the Railways Magazine filled much the same intellectual role as the NZ Listener does today in the 21st century. |