MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Daily Times, 18 April 1935, Page 5

MAORI MEMORIES

(By J.H.S. for “The Daily Times.”)

GREY’S LEGENDS.

Many thousand; ardent admirers of Sir George Grey, Maori and Pakelia, who knew his powers of expression by voice or pen, his invective, bitter epigram, or on the other hand, his affection or his flashes of humour and wit, have been sadly silent concerning his book ‘ 1 Maori Mythology.” Before reading it, I had bought lea-ther-bound copies as precious gifts to my friends, and had been perplexed at their strangely cold reception. Having read it, I realised why. It was utterly devoid of Sir George Grey’s outstanding power as a narrator. Turning bewildered to the preface and the few reluctant critics, the reason flashed upon me. He had suppressed or put aside his own great personality and powers of expression, in order that the literary world should have the Maori legends word for word just as they were recited by their Toliungas for six hundred years. Having faithfully transcribed their legends from the lips of the narrators with infinite detail, and without the aid of Pitman’s shorthand to help his busy hours, he said that the Maori traditions were! puerile, and' their religious faith was absurd; but that the Saxon, Celtic, and Scandinavian mythology, .were equally so.. ~, , In evdry translation from whatever language, we are apt to remark upon the absence of humour, but we forget that wit or humour is mainly a play upon words, the nature of which are completely changed in translation. • To one another the Maoris are full of wit and laughter; but words translated lose point and subtle meaning, in which a joke is found. Maori humour can only be conveyed to us in actions, instances of which I may some day tell. The same may be said of pathos, and any form of recital lacking these two vital elements must of necessity prove insufferably dull.. Most students of Maori agree with James Izett that ‘‘ If instead of binding himself to the rigid virtue of literal translation, Sir George had written with a free hand, tenderness, and his own poetic fancy, what a different literary work ho would have left us. His hand could have lifted the legends out of their puerility. The Maoris would have been infinitely better pleased. Naturally they desire to see the traditions of their raco clothed in the best garb possible.” The way is still open to a modern Sir George, yet perhaps unborn.