soma

lovely leaning temple
dark skinned unshaven
i will make no bones
it is your exotic nature
     soma, tini, tinio, tinio
your lean polynesian remarks
     maumau o mea faamalama
wild samoan 
your thoughts
on my hand
out of your seed
    maumau o mea faamalama
a black unknowing that I reach for 
     a tiaʻi e le malo
     uce, uce
thank goodness your heart is knowable
and I am not lonely

(Popular songs on passing events are, as in other lands, very common. They are sung to the stroke of the paddles when on a journey, or when engaged on any work requiring united exertion.

At the time when religion was beginning to take root in Samoa, the lovers of darkness thus expressed their regrets at the prospective loss of their pleasures:

Tini, tinio, tinio!
Maumau o mea faamalama,
A tiaʻi e le malo.

Comments

[Brian Edwards]

Like this Jill. Maybe nix "thank goodness"?