This
song originated in the Hastings area and was composed during
the early part of World War II, as a song of encouragement to
all
tribes to enlist the services of their sons for
war.
(All)
Pä mai tö reo aroha
Ki te pä o Hikorangi
E ngä iwi o Aotearoa
Haere mai, haere mai.
Titiro
ki nga hoia kua wehi nei
Aue! te aroha me te mamae
(Women)
E nga iwi o Aotearoa...
(Men)
Tahi miti toru e
Tae te marumaru
Whare tapu teitei
Te ao korowhiti
(All)
...Kia kaha! kia manawanui!
(All)
Your voice of love reaches
the army base of (..whatever
is nearest)
(All you) tribes
of new Zealand
Come hither, come hither.
Look
at the soldiers departing from us
Alas! the love and the pain.
(Women)
To the people of New Zealand...
(Men)
First one then later three weapons
as a protection for
the lofty sacred house
known throughout the world (All)
...Be strong! be patient!
Versions
The
above version is from the 1960 book, Maori
Action Songs written by Alan Armstrong and
Reupena Ngata.
The lyrics and comments below are from the 1992 book
Waiata Maori by Toby Rikihana.
Pä
mai tö reo aroha
Ki te pä o Hikorangi
E ngä iwi o Aotearoa
Haere mai, haere mai. Tahi
miti toru e
Tae te marumaru
Whare tapu teitei
Te ao korowhiti
Haere
mai, haere mai.
Titiro ki nga hoia kua wehi nei
Aue! te aroha me te mamae
E nga iwi o Aotearoa
Kia kaha! kia manawanui!
Your
voice of love reaches
the army base of (..whatever
is nearest)
People of new Zealand
Come hither, come hither. First
one then later three weapons
as a protection for
the lofty sacred house
known throughout the world Come
hither, come hither.
Look at the soldiers departing from us
Alas! the love and the pain.
To the people of New Zealand,
Be strong! be patient!
Tahi
Miti chant
Rikihana
says in his book Waiata Maori that the
precise meaning of the Tahi miti chant
unknown, but that one informant told him it could
be a "waiata whaiwhaiä," a chant used to cast a
spell which keeps enemies away. (Whaiwhaiä =
Mäkutu)
Rikihana
also draws attention to a longer, and therefore
older, version of the "Tahi miti" chant in another
song, Haere mai E ngä iwi e.
Haere mai, haere mai
E ngä iwi e haere mai
Ki runga o te marae
Hui mai tätou katoa
E hine mä, e tama mä
Hapainga to mana Mäori e
Kia rewa runga rawa
I a ha hä
E ngä iwi e
Haere mai, haere mai.
Tahi miti toru e
Tae te marumaru
Whare tapu teitei
Te ao korowhiti
Tenei au e te tü hawerewere
Te ao wahine
Rürü täwhai täwhai
Welcome,
welcome
all the tribes welcome
onto the courtyard
all of us gathered here.
Young women, young men
uplift your Maori prestige
to float on high
I a ha ha
All the tribes
Welcome welcome. First one then later three
weapons
as a protection for
the lofty sacred house
known throughout the world
This be I standing alert
noticed by all women
and all things tremble.
Performance
I
do not like the way pop versions of Pa Mai exploit
this song, like the much-played 1999 version by
Maisey Rika. She sings it in a meaningless
pretty-pretty way, and omits the chant for
protection against enemies.
Play
this 144 K MP3
pop version of Pa Mai, by Maisey Rika.
This
is a song which whanau sang with huge pride, and
great grief, as their fine young sons departed to
war. Those proudly supporting their boys'
departure knew very well that many of them would
be mutilated or killed. I feel it could be sung
with much more dignity.
This is performed as an action song. The
traditional actions can be found in the recently
reprinted book, Maori Action Songs, 2002,
by Armstrong and Ngata.
Origin
of Tune
Eddie
O'Strange, a former NZBC radio producer and expert
of old hit parade recordings writes...
I've
long suspected that Pa Mai is to a
"borrowed" tune. Many of the Maori songs
originating from the beginning-to-just-after
WW2 usually seem to use melodies borrowed
from either big/dance bands or
country/western artists. However, I've
always presumed Pa Mai was probably set to a
[let's call it] Hawaiian-style song. Pure
guesswork though! It's just that the tune
itself screams "Hawaiian guitar" -- to me
it's so redolent of the lap steel
instrumental-based compositions of the 30s,
rather than the melody sweep a tunesmith
would conjure up for a vocalist.