O My Beautiful Nuku'alofa

Terra d'Amore ...– Land of Love

Dedicated to My God, my King and Country

Words cannot explain how I gaze you ablaze

How your beauty has been blood-stained and defaced

My land of love - Nuku-'alofa, you have become tears of blood

Your fire of love has become fire of destruction

O! my land of love, what have you done?

The news of your desolation resounds through the universe

Aching my soul with an immense abyss of sadness

Why have we allowed impatience, madness and unruliness

To rule over reasonableness, calmness and friendliness,

O! my Terra d'Amore, what have you done?

Your face is so disfigured that I could hardly recognize you

Your very heart carved open by hands emanating from you

I am relegated to numbness, lost for words, shocked to base

Stealing, looting, burning, demolition, am put to silence

O! my Nuku'alofa, look at what they have done to you!

Democracy! how can you rise up and proclaim victory

Amidst ruins, dead bodies, heart aches, now your responsibility

Is this your true nature to resort to fire, blood and force to win?

It sounds more like Beelzebul, a far cry from justice, has claimed its sting.

O! my Friendly Islands, look at what pro-democracy has done to you!

My beloved! how can burning and pillaging become means for democracy?

How can killing be termed freedom of expression and freedom of speech?

How can demolition and violence become love and justice for a country?

My Kings, ancestors and forefathers, rise up, hear and see

The loud and inconsolable cry of your beloved country

O dignified Democracy! Where is your authenticity?

Your noble values lie in respect of human dignity and human property;

Protector of truth, human freedom, life and its sanctity;

Upholder of justice and non-violent, in a multicultural society;

Defender of the poor, the voiceless and the rights of the minority

O true and fair Democracy! Where on earth have you been?

O! my Nuku'alofa! if only you could see the tears in my eyes

If only you could hear the solitude sound of my cries

If only my heart could be laid bare before you

So you can see it aching and wailing in love for you

O! My Nuku'alofa

O! My once friendly isles, my land of love,

How can I soothe the aches and pains that I feel for you?

How can I possibly sing a love song for you?

When your heart of love, kindness, friendliness have been rid of you?

O! My Nuku'alofa, my Terra d'Amore!

O! my beloved Tonga ko e fonua malu,

How can you destroy the foreigners who fakamalumalu in you?

When your own sons and daughters everywhere are foreigners too,

Yet never have they been subjected to such barbaric rule,

O! my land of love, how can this be spoken of you?

My Tonga, my Nuku'alofa, my Friendly Islands!

Where is your wisdom, fofola e fala kae fai e t?langa

Where are your noble values of respect, calmness & forgiveness?

Have we replaced them with impatience, greediness & personal gains?

O! my noble Tongan values, O please stand up, speak to me, where are you?

My Tonga, my Nuku'alofa, my land of love,

If I forget you, let my whole being wither

How can I forget you and prefer foreign systems and gods to you?

Have you gone mad because you have been unjustly treated?

Or have you gone astray because you are greedy and power hungry?

Let me renew my covenant with you

Let me once more have some respect for you

Let me rise now with new songs of justice

Of love, of hope and of peace

My Nuku'alofa, my friendly islands

Behold! you have neither silver nor gold,

You have the fe'ofo'ofani, fetokoni'aki, and fefaka'apa'apa'aki,

Sharing, reciprocal love, wonderful hospitality and angai-kainga

These are your God-given silver and gold,

These are your God-given source of happiness and joy

My beloved King,

My beloved Tonga,

My beloved country,

My friendly isles

My God fearing people

My land of love,

My Nuku'alofa,

Though you have been deeply wounded,

Severely scarred, debased and defaced,

I love you still,

I treasure you still,

I still call you: MY VERY OWN!

A poetic tearful lamentation at what has befallen in our beautiful island.

By Fr. Dr. Mikaele Paunga SM, 500 7th Avenue, San Bruno, CA 94066, USA, on the Eve of Thanksgiving, November 22, 2006. My email contact: mpaunga [at] hotmail [dot] com

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