E nanawe ake ana i ahau

English lyrics

Gnawing away within me
Is sadness, pain and sorrow,
For that most important aspect
Of the Māori world
Which is fast disappearing,
For its literary flights, its aptness
For its barbs, its great beauty

That which caused the dust to be stirred
Blood to be spilt
The spine to tingle
Admiration to be demanded
And reputations to be made.

Let us now desist
From stating that the blame lies here
Or that the blame lies there

From being obsessed with the beauty of
the air,
The actions and the turn of the head

Those elements employed to distract people
And thereby disguise the fact that they
know nothing
From letting the peripheral
Assume a position of importance
And the important become insignificant

In their day and time
The word was the beginning
And the word was the end
The actions were secondary.
However, in our day and time
The actions have become
The be all and end all
The lyric unimportant.

We are like fish
With mouths opening meaninglessly!
Note that we have places where words have
been suspended in time, and where chiefs
have trodden
To motivate and strengthen us

For without that most essential of aspects,
the language,
How can words be suspended or chiefs stand
on the marae?

Therefore let us prepare
To return the language to its proper position
of importance
Lest our descendants should ask,
'What did you do with my heritage?'