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142
The Noosing of the Sun-God.
LXXXIII.
The Noosing of the Sun-God.
Tiraha, Te Ra!
I am Maui,—
Maui the bantling, the darling;—
Maui the fire-thief, the jester;—
Maui the world’s fisherman!
I am Maui, man’s champion!
Thou art the Sun-God,
Te Ra of the flaming hair.
Heretofore man is thy moth.
What is the life of man,
Bound to thy rushing wings,
Thou fire-bird of Rangi?
A birth in a burning;
A flash and a war-word;
A failing, a falling
Of ash to the ashes
Of bottomless Po!
I am Maui!
The great one, the little one;
A bird that could nest
In the hand of a woman.
I—I have vanquished
The Timeless, the Ancients.
The heavens cannot bind me,
But I shall bind thee.
Tiraha, Te Ra!”
Ah, the red day
Of the fighting of Maui!
How he waxed, how he grew:
How the Earth Mother shook!
And the sea was afraid,
I am Maui,—
Maui the bantling, the darling;—
Maui the fire-thief, the jester;—
Maui the world’s fisherman!
I am Maui, man’s champion!
Thou art the Sun-God,
Te Ra of the flaming hair.
Heretofore man is thy moth.
What is the life of man,
Bound to thy rushing wings,
Thou fire-bird of Rangi?
A birth in a burning;
A flash and a war-word;
A failing, a falling
Of ash to the ashes
Of bottomless Po!
I am Maui!
The great one, the little one;
A bird that could nest
In the hand of a woman.
I—I have vanquished
The Timeless, the Ancients.
The heavens cannot bind me,
But I shall bind thee.
Tiraha, Te Ra!”
Ah, the red day
Of the fighting of Maui!
How he waxed, how he grew:
How the Earth Mother shook!
And the sea was afraid,