This is one of my favourite songs - I just found it on YouTube and decided to share it - I hope you like it. I love the energy.
The Story of Tarakihi
Mahinarangi Tocker, who sang with Kiri on the Maori CD says she was told by her elders that "Tarakihi is from Ngati Maniapoto. It is more than 300 years old and talks about the cicada as a huge strength. Hiding in a cave at night and coming out to sing its stories by day. It's a symbolic story of people."
It is an extremely popular haka, based on the shrill summer-singing of the tarakihi (cicada). This is the song that came to a Maori poet, wandering on a summer afternoon in search of inspiration. Approaching a grove of mahoe, in a sequestered, romantic nook, he was suddenly aware of the delirious joy-song of the assembled tarakihi throbbing in the air. At once he composed an introductory stanza followed by a chorus of tarakihi sounds:
Tarakihi (in te reo Maori)
E, pakia kia rite
E, ko te rite kia rite
E, takahia kia ngawari
E, torona kei waho
Hoki mai
E whakarongo ai au
Ki te tangi mai
A te manu nei,
A te tarakihi,
I te weheruatanga
o te po
Tara ra-ta kita kita
Tara ra-ta kita kita
Wiri o papa, towene, towene
Wiri o papa, towene, towene
Hope whai-a-ke
Turi whatia
Ei! Ei! Ha!
and Tarakihi (in te reo Pakeha)
Clap in unison,
in unison, in unison.
Stamp your feet smoothly
Hands outstretched
then back.
I listen
to the cry
of this flying creature
of the cicada
in the middle
of the night.
Tara ra ta ki ta ki ta
Tara ra ta ki ta ki ta
Quivering rear end, whirring, whirring
Quivering rear end, whirring, whirring
Knees bent
hips swaying
Ei! Ei! Ha !
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 | Well, that's fired me up good and proper! *smile* I shall go to do battle in Asda with renewed resolve, now. :-) |
 | Thanks for posting that video Iri, I was greatly struck by the similarities to Russian folk music and also there were bits that reminded me of Greek drinking songs (although I don't think they would call them that). Very interesting thanks for sharing.
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 | Great song ! Thank you for sharing ! |
 | lol THAT WAS AWESOME! Woo hooooooooo |
 | Ata marie kia koe e hoa wahine rangatira....
Anyway told you lately you are amazing, no? Barstids!..
You are fantastic tuahine.
If I don't see you before Christmas... then let me take this short window of opportunity to wish you and yours.... peace, love, harmony and mungbeans....(I still remember your last Christmas blog....... and the pavlova). Till next time
brown girl |
 | I didn't know what to expect, but it was quite enjoyable. |
 | dnoakes wrote on Dec 17, '08, edited on Dec 17, '08 Energy it has indeed, in spades! This is the first time I've heard Kiri Te Kawana sing something non-Western. It does sound a bit Russian to me as well, but as you say it must be a coincidence. Thanks for the music video. |
| I watch the Pohutukawa flowers with great interest....soon the Kina will be at their best, and (I am oh so trying to keep that orgasmic look off my face...) I'll be cracking those eggs, drinking the juice and peeling back the yellow gold (oh my gawd, nearly better than sex; and hell, thats good! lol).
I am sure you will pluck a christmas jewell out your ..................ehmmmmmmmmm.....
.............................................................................................................................................................................................................back pocket, and I will look forward to it.
Till then tuahine
mucho arohaio from moisy to vousy
brown girl |
 |  Energy it has indeed, in spades! This is the first time I've heard Kiri Te Kawana sing something non-Western. It does sound a bit Russian to me as well, but as you say it must be a coincidence. Thanks for the music video.  You are welcome Doug. There is in fact a whole Maori Songs cd http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/artist/album/0,,909047,00.html I think you can listen to some more of the music on this link, for people who are interested. |
| I watch the Pohutukawa flowers with great interest....soon the Kina will be at their best, and (I am oh so trying to keep that orgasmic look off my face...) I'll be cracking those eggs, drinking the juice and peeling back the yellow gold (oh my gawd, nearly better than sex; and hell, thats good! lol).
I am sure you will pluck a christmas jewell out your ..................ehmmmmmmmmm.....
.............................................................................................................................................................................................................back pocket, and I will look forward to it.
Till then tuahine
mucho arohaio from moisy to vousy
brown girl lol sounds like its time you wrote a new blog, you have such a way with words, I am not sure I will be able to look at an egg in the face this side of xmas now hehehe
The rainclouds are finally lifting, hooray, do you know I really could not cope with a wintry xmas, its not right without sun, in fact its depressing.
You be careful now, you never know what might be hidden in that ... back pocket.
Aloha Aroha. |
|
truths...
...inside every woman is a scribe
wanting to/ set the record straight...
...in rooms and cells up and down the country
women/ whose throats are dry, who are unable
any longer/ to speak, pen notes to themselves
they tell tales./ and in the night, in the deep part
of the black/ night the women come and go,
doing a soft shoe/ shuffle, walking down valium alley
heads bent/ and penitent, keeping an eye out for angels
and/ the night nurse riding his charger, and in the/ night
when the corridors sting with silence they/ come and go
lulling each other, eyes zipped wide,/ they go in file down
librium mile and back...
...and in one-roomed flats and beazley homes they/
sit in locked lavatories scribbling fast in time/
to children, they write poems on tables littered/
with crumbs and jam to the beat of the AM band./
they record the songs of all the women in the/ world./
each one an image of her sister...
...this text is edited from a poem by
nz poet and broadcaster
mike minehan (1990)
of course, now we blog./ arohanui./
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