The Silvereye Or 'stranger' [tauhou] Poem by Keith Shorrocks Johnson

Farewell my love, the ship slips hove
With mollies set shore-side
Our whalers' rove in Sydney Cove
Has reached its time and tide.

Finches flocking high above

Pigs on deck, rum and cheese to hold
Sails are furled out-wide -
A whale-ship bold with harpoons stowed
And eyes now quickly dried.

A cloud to mast-trees tied

Beyond the heads the course is set
For Tasman’s eastern isles
To Zealand’s coast where whales are met
And lads must face their trials.

The flock ne'er once resiles

The skipper looks up top and smiles
To see the sweet birds wheel
With passage fair, far the miles
The shadows rigging-resting steal.

And the mascots sleep aloft

The tops break white and bright
The weather light in breeze
A sea with greenstone azure tint
That sparkles bright turquoise.

Stranger now the die is cast

Twenty sunny endless days have past
Amid the rocking trees -
The flock grows weaker at the last
Abreast the western breeze.

A nau mai haere mai tauhou

The morning dawns to gulls at sea
And fresh dews on the deck -
See long white clouds at distant lee
With land a hinted speck.

A nau mai haere mai tauhou

And soon the old brig draws to shore
Near Paritutu Rock
And warriors to whalers roar
While gifts are taken stock.

A nau mai haere mai tauhou

As Maori break the musket chest
Whalers gather daughters
But silvereyes are now at rest
That wide calm sea has brought us.

A nau mai haere mai tauhou
...
'Kia korero koe i te ngutu o te manu,
Kia hoki ana mai to wairua ki te ao nei—i—i! '

[Welcome - welcome stranger.
Speak with the bill of a bird
Reincarnated to this world.]