Ko ngā tini ao kei te ao nei: He mea whakamāori, nā Margaret Cavendish
A translation into Māori of Margaret Cavendish’s ‘Of Many Worlds in this World’ (1653)
He rite nei ki ngā pōuaka putua,
Ka noho te pouaka paku ki rō pouaka nui,
Heoi, i te ao nei, nui noa ngā ao kē,
He whāiti, he paku, he paku rawa tonu:
Ahakoa tē kitea mai e tātou,
He ao pea kāore e rahi atu i te rua-kapa.
He karu hōmiromiro tō te mauri whakatupu,
Heoi ka hangā pea he mea e kore e putaputa mai
Ki ō tātou rongo makaro noa:
Mēnā he āhua ngārara tō ia ngota
He tini pea ngā ngārara, he paku me te ngota.
Mēnā he ao i te tokowhā ngota, nā,
E hia kē mai ngā ao i te whakakai:
Nō te mea, he miriona ngota i te
Ūpoko o tētahi pine koroiti kotahi.
Mēnā he pēnei, ka maua pea e ngā wāhine
He ao tukupū katoa, hei koko i ngā taringa.
Just like as in a nest of boxes round,
Degrees of sizes in each box are found:
So, in this world, may many others be
Thinner and less, and less still by degree:
Although they are not subject to our sense,
A world may be no bigger than two-pence.
Nature is curious, and such works may shape,
Which our dull senses easily escape:
For creatures, small as atoms, may there be,
If every one a creature’s figure bear.
If atoms four, a world can make, then see
What several worlds might in an ear-ring be:
For, millions of those atoms may be in
The head of one small, little, single pin.
And if thus small, then ladies may well wear
A world of worlds, as pendents in each ear.
Image: Kōhūhū [Pittosporum tenuifolium] seeds, 2019, by Sarawawawa. Image cropped. License here.