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Rimurimu
Rimu rimu

This lament was composed by a grieving mother for her recently deceased child.
Rimu-rimu, tere tere
E rere ki te moana.
E tere ana ki te ripo
I waho e.

Tirohia i waho rä
E marino ana e.
Kei roto i ahau
E marangai ana e.

Kei te tio te huka
I runga o ngä hiwi.
Kei te moe koromeke
Te wairua e.

Rite tonu tö hanga
Ki te tïrairaka e
Waihoki tö hanga
Te wairangi e. 		          Seaweed drifting, drifting,
floating on the ocean.
Drifting in the whirlpool,
out there.

When I look out there
it is so calm
while within me
everything is storm tossed.

The snow is biting cold
on the ridges,
and lying curled up asleep
is your spirit.

Your behaviour is like that
of the fantail,
in the same way, your restless spirit
upsets me greatly.

Notes

Komatua Toby Rikihana writes that this lament was composed by a grieving mother for her recently deceased child who observed a strand of floating seaweed and likened it to the spirit of her child moving slowly back to Hawaiiki, the original homeland of the Maori.

The reference to the fantail is a comparison between the fantail's seemingly endless search for a resting place and the dead child's spirit searching endlessly for a home before finally travelling back to Hawaiki. You may wish to omit this 4th verse and end the song by repeating verse 1 instead.

We extend our deepest sympathies to all those who have come to this page because their own child has died. We hope that these words will be a consolation.

Tune

Play Rimu-rimu as a 230 Kb MP3 sound clip.

This MP3 is from a track recorded in 1966 by the late Hannah Tatana.
She sounds even better on the full track, which has been re-released on the CD
Traditional music of the Maori [sound recording] : an historical collection.
( Viking Sevenseas, 1995) and (BMG, 1999)

You can also find the tune here.

There are also these recent listings with a song called 'Rimurimu,' but I think this is a more recent composition about seaweed as a natural resource.

Rimu, Rimurimu, Limu, Lumi

Seaweed? Isn't 'rimu' the Maori name of a big New Zealand tree?

The old Pacific Island word (Fiji => Tonga and Samoa) for seaweed or moss is lumi. But the vowels were apparently switched around when the Polynesians migrated Samoa => Eastern Pacific, because when migrants went Marquesas => Hawaii, they took with them the word limu for seaweed. And when they migrated Tahiti => NZ they also brought the limu form.

And although the 'L' form was still being used by pre-Ngai Tahu Maori in Stewart Island and Southland until the 20th century (Beatty records Waihola, Lakiula, fale) the 'L' consonant has mostly been changed in the Maori language to a rolled 'R.'

Hence the Maori name "rimu" for seaweed and moss. The big New Zealand tree with droopy branches was obviously named "the seaweed tree," Rimu, and this tree was so common that seaweed often has to be often distinguished from the tree as te rimu o te moana, or rimurimu.

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Published on the web 14 April 2003