One of the best-ever kiwi songs

I'm having a homesick time, since I'm not feeling 100% (two 60 hour weeks in a row with no days off and a neck that's out does it to you), so I'm listening to a compilation of good old kiwi music.

The famous song Blue Smoke was popularised by Dean Martin, but it was written by a Māori soldier in WWII, Ruru Karaitiana. It was supposed to be performed by both men and women, since the soldier is saying goodbye, and the woman is saying she'll never forget him. It's a shame that the popular version(s) have lost that component, because the woman's lyric is poignant too. The interesting thing, though, is that the woman's part is sung in Māori, the language of home, I suppose. But it kind of explains why Deano and co were reluctant to take it on.

Here's a page with the song's full set of lyrics (with translation) and a link to an MP3 with a small snippet of the lyric sung in Māori. The translation is a wee bit strange in one section:

E haere rā ahau me te aroha nui
Mōhou, e tama e, te aroha nei

"I travel with you on the wings of my love
Oh Tama, my love is all for you."

Since the translation isn't trying to follow the rhyme scheme or the meter at all, I don't know why they did this. I'd render it more prosaically as:

I'm travelling with you by way of a great love
It's for you, boy, this love

Ok, getting the sense of "travelling with you by means of love" is a bit cumbersome, although I find the "wings" thing a bit foofy. However, "tama" given as a proper name (which it can be) when it's lower case and evidently saying "boy"? Strange.

Great song though. And that's a great page describing its history.


Update: I scrolled down the page and found a much better translation for the bit I was objecting to...

I am going with you (in spirit), by the power of love
For you, boy, is this love.

And the rest of that translation, spot on.

Oh bugger!

Oh, poo, I kind of missed commodorified's contribution since I was not using my computer much for frivolity over the weekend, but I just got tagged by someone else (for a) quoting Shakespeare when you see him; and b) quoting a poem when you see one). So, I kill two birds with one stone.

Shakespeare, here 'tis:

Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,
The dear repose for limbs with travel tired;
But then begins a journey in my head,
To work my mind, when body's work's expired:
For then my thoughts, from far where I abide,
Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee,
And keep my drooping eyelids open wide,
Looking on darkness which the blind do see
Save that my soul's imaginary sight
Presents thy shadow to my sightless view,
Which, like a jewel hung in ghastly night,
Makes black night beauteous and her old face new.
Lo! thus, by day my limbs, by night my mind,
For thee and for myself no quiet find.

Horribly horribly apposite at the moment.