The Most-Read Posts of “…on Anything, Really” in 2012: A Tuesday Poem—The Tauparapara ”Te Tangi A Te Matui” (Traditional)
Introduction:
I posted this lovely, ancient tauparapara as my Tuesday Poem on February 7 of this year, to celebrate Waitangi Day, which always falls on February 6. I love Te Tangi A Te Matui, and am thrilled both at the very positive reception its received and to be posting it again today as a “most-read” feature for 2012.
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Te Tangi A Te Matui
Kia whakarongo ake au
Ki te tangi a te manu nei
A te matui
Tui-i-i Tui-i-i Tuituia
Tui i runga
Tui i raro
Tuia i waho
Tuia i roto
Tuia i te here tangata
Ka rongo te po
Ka ronga te ao
Tuia i te muka tangata
I takea mai i Hawaiki nui
I Hawaiki roa
I Hawaiki paa mamao
Te hono i wairua
Ki te whaiao
Ki to ao marama
Tihe mauri ora!
~
I listen
To the cry of the bird
Of the matui, calling
Tui-i-i Tui-i-i Tuituia
Let it be woven above
Woven below
Woven without
Woven within
Interwoven with the thread of humanity
Feel the peace of darkness (death)
Feel the peace of light (life)
Bind together the people
descended from great Hawaiki
from far off Hawaiki
from long distant Hawaiki
The coming together of spirits
Out into the dawn
Emerging into the world of light.
The spirit of life is in us!
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The incantation or tauparapara, Te Tangi A Matui, is both traditional and very old. I first learned it as a child and young adult growing up in the King Country, where it was often used as a karanga, the traditional call that begins the welcome onto a marae. The translation was also as I was given to understand it then. I post it today to honour and celebrate Waitangi Day and the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi: Te Tiriti O Waitangi, the founding document and the founding act of our modern nation.
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