21 July 2008

The Ode in Te Reo Maori

To mark Maori Language Week 21-27 July 2008 the RNZRSA is pleased to announce that at its meeting this month the RNZRSA National Executive Committee formally adopted the following version of 'The Ode' in Te Reo Maori for use on commemorative occasions:

E kore ratou e koroheketia
Penei i a tatou kua mahue nei
E kore hoki ratou e ngoikore
Ahakoa pehea i nga ahuatanga o te wa.
I te hekenga atu o te ra
Tae noa ki te aranga mai i te ata
Ka maumahara tonu tatou ki a ratou.

Ka maumahara tonu tatou ki a ratou.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

We will remember them.

The late Tamati Parone

The Ode has been spoken in Te Reo Maori for many years. There are various te reo transliterations of the The Ode but the version above is that of the 28 (Maori) Battalion Association, as spoken by the Association's National President Tamati Parone at the interment of the Unknown Warrior at the National War Memorial on 11 November 2004 as well as by the Chief of Defence Force Lieutenant General Jerry Mateparae at the dedication of the New Zealand Memorial on 11 November 2006.

The Significance of the Ode

The Ode derives from the fourth stanza of the poem 'For the Fallen' by Lawrence Binyon and is also known as 'Binyon's Lines'.

For The Fallen

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.
There is a music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables at home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

English poet, dramatist, art scholar and Assistant Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum, Laurence Binyon (1869–1943) wrote "For the Fallen" in response to the outbreak of the First World War while sitting on The Rumps, Polseath Polzeath, Cornwall. It was first published in The Times (London) on 21 September 1914 and subsequently in Binyon's The Winnowing Fan; Poems on the Great War. Edward Elgar set to music three of Binyon's poems, including "For the Fallen", as The Spirit of England (1917).

Although too old to enlist in the First World War, Binyon went to the Western Front in 1916 to work for the Red Cross as a medical orderly with an Ambulance Unit. He wrote about his experiences in For Dauntless France (1918). Binyon returned to British Museum after the war and retired as the Keeper of the Prints and Drawings Department. He died in 1943.

The Ode was used at the unveiling of the Cenotaph in Whitehall London on 11 November 1919 and, like so many remembrance traditions, passed into common usage across the Commonwealth.

History in Aotearoa/New Zealand

In New Zealand, and even prior to the unveiling of the Cenotaph in London, Major Fred Waite utilised the third and four stanza from "For the Fallen" as the dedication to the memory of those who died at Gallipoli in his official history of the Gallipoli Campaign, published during 1919.

In their study of war memorials The Sorrow and the Pride, historian Jock Phillips and Chris Maclean identified several New Zealand First World War memorials that incorporate Binyon's lines.

The Ode became a part of commemorative services during the 1920s and today is the central feature of the regular, if not daily, remembrance ceremony held at RSA clubs.

Related link

Celebrate Maori Language Week
www.korero.maori.nz/news/mlw

In Brief
What: Maori Language Week
When: 21-27 July 2008
How: www.korero.maori.nz