May the sun never set on new zealand

November 4, 2011 8:45 PM

Can anyone give me a rough translation of the Haka in Latin?

Asking because I want to have something ready to go at a corporate event if I am asked on stage, which I may be, where there will be NZ and rugby fans in a very mixed audience.

posted by evil_esto to Media & Arts (12 answers total)

Which haka?
posted by Jimbob at 9:26 PM on November 4, 2011

Response by poster: NZ haka, the one they do at the rugby. But any other Hakas will be helpful.
posted by evil_esto at 9:30 PM on November 4, 2011

Response by poster: At this point insight is useful
posted by evil_esto at 9:59 PM on November 4, 2011

The All Blacks perform a number of different hakas. The most famous is Ka Mate. But if you want one from a specific match (such as the recent World Cup) you'll need to specify.
posted by yoink at 10:12 PM on November 4, 2011

Might help if you provide the text that you want translated.
posted by Cortes at 10:13 PM on November 4, 2011

I have no idea what a "haka" is, but the thing sien posted above translates to English as:

Iam mortem Iam mortem (or: moriar) iam vita! Iam vita! (or: vivam)
Now death, now death (or: I will die/may I die); now life! Now life! (or: I will live/may I live).

Homo pilosus sit
Let the person be hairy

Qui eduxit et fecit sol lucet
Who has led out and made; the sun is shining

A step sursum, alia sursum step!
From "step" up, other things down "step"!

A step sursum, alio ... Sol lucet!
From "step" up, to another place... the Sun is shining!

Just so you can see whether that's what you wanted (I kind of doubt it). If you want something else, it probably would help to include the text of what you want translated.
posted by lysimache at 8:08 AM on November 5, 2011

’Tis death! ‘tis death! (or: I may die) ’Tis life! ‘tis life! (or: I may live)
’Tis death! ‘tis death! ’Tis life! ‘tis life!
This is the hairy man
Who brought the sun and caused it to shine
A step upward, another step upward!
A step upward, another... the Sun shines!

This is the Wikipedia translation of the original Maori. Any Latinists care to translate?
posted by yoink at 8:32 AM on November 5, 2011

There are rules about who performs a haka and where and when. It's not just some random thing but a specific ritual within Maori culture. For example, most are not allowed to be performed by women (because it is a war dance). When the Spice Girls performed Ka Mate thinking they were showing some kind of respect and admiration for Maori culture it came across as the exact opposite, and many people in NZ were offended.

I don't know the intricacies of it all so can't advise you on what you should or shouldn't do exactly. But, as a non-Maori NZer, I always felt it would be pretty unacceptable for me to randomly perform a haka in public given I don't know what I'm doing and it's not my culture. I'd advise you to at least find out more about the cultural norms around this specific dance before you attempt it (google should bring up NZ-written resources, you definitely need something better than wikipedia is offering), because if you didn't even know there were more than one haka I'm betting you also don't belong to the culture or know what you're really doing. Co-opting another culture can easily go very wrong, and I've read enough angry newspaper articles about this stuff to know your chances of being offensive are non-zero.
posted by shelleycat at 9:10 AM on November 5, 2011 [2 favorites]

Here's my (human) attempt at the version yoink posted:

Moriam! Moriam! Vivam! Vivam!
Moriam! Moriam! Vivam! Vivam!
Hoc est pilosus vir
qui solem effixi fexique ut fulserit.
Sursum gradi, iterum gradi sursum!
Sursum gradi, iterum...Sol fulget!

There are probably issues it with it; maybe others can chime in.
posted by Cortes at 9:31 AM on November 5, 2011

Just to second what shelleycat said, there is a high risk of seriously pissing off any NZers in your crowd if what you plan to do would in any way be construed as mocking the haka. And that's not the "hey, they're mocking my team" kind of reaction but the "you just seriously stepped over the line" kind of reaction--like doing a black-face minstrel routine to entertain a group of Americans.

That said, simply performing the haka in Latin doesn't, by itself, strike me as mockery.
posted by yoink at 9:49 AM on November 5, 2011

Messed up one of those lines - should be "qui solem effixi fecique ut fulgeret."
posted by Cortes at 10:04 AM on November 5, 2011

Just to be clear, it didn't occur to me for a minute that you're mocking anything. Just potentially inappropriate or unintentionally offensive. That has nothing to do with rugby either (I hate rugby, mock it all you want), but taking a serious ritual from someone else's culture and performing it in an inappropriate setting or insensitive way. Something quite easy to do when you have no clue what you're even on about.

I'm also not saying 'don't do this', just take some time to research and be sure of what you are doing before you decide either way. Particularly given you say it's a corporate setting where I'm guessing you really don't want to stick your foot in it without realising.
posted by shelleycat at 10:47 AM on November 5, 2011 [2 favorites]