Te reo tuhituhi...

Aī! Kua tōmuri rawa te rātaka nei. Ehara i te mea he nui ngā mahi. Kāore te kura e tīmata anō tae noa ki te mutunga o Pepuere!

Ko tā māua ko te tirotiro ki ngā putanga o ngā ākonga o Te Koutu me te whakatau kōrero i reira. Ko te hanga nei i pai te Tau 11 i te taha o Maru. He pai hoki ngā putanga mo te Waihanga (he pai rawa atu) me te Reo Rangatira. Ko te hanga kino rawa ko te maha o ngā putanga i te ngaro, arā, ko ngā mea rāroto kāore i tāpiritia atu. Ko te mate i tae tāreparepa atu ngā pepa ki ngā ākonga me ō rātou whānau.

Ko tā māua hoki ko te pānui – me Aroha hoki! Kāore au i te mōhio ki te hāora i moe ai a Aroha inapō engari he tōmuri rawa. He aha ai? Kia mutu rānō te pānui i tana pukapuka, ‘Serena’ na Ron Rash. Engari te pai o te pukapuka! He momo ‘MacBeth’, arā, he aha te mutunga mai o te hiamana... E kī!

I mua i tērā ko ‘Te Wharetūroro’ (‘The Pesthouse’) na Jim Crace. Ka mīharo ki ngā kaituhi e kaha ana ki te whakaahua i te ao mō ngā kōrero, koina hoki tā Jim Crace, he ao no muri rawa atu nei. He āhua rite ki tā Cormac McCarthy, ki ‘Te Rori’. Ahakoa ehara te pai i te pērā (he pukapuka e pērā ana te pai?!), i rata tonu atu. Kia hoki ki Aotearoa me rapu ētahi atu pukapuka na Jim Crace.

Ko te pukapuka tuatahi i pānuihia ko ‘Ngā Wāhine Tokoono a Hēnare VIII’ na Antonia Fraser, engari i roto i te reo Paniora, ‘Las seis esposas de Enrique VIII’. I a au e tamariki ana ko Ana Boleyn te tino wahine, he pānga no te hītori Mihinare, i te mea ko ia te whaea o tērā o ngā tino kuini, o Irihāpeti I! Ka aroha hoki a Katerina o Arakona!

Na, ko te pukapuka whakamutunga ko ‘Edgar Sawtelle’ na David Wroblewski. He pērā me ‘Serena’, kei te whai i tētahi o ngā tauira a Wīremu Shakespeare, engari ko ‘Hamlet’. Me mihi i konei ki te atamai whakaharahara o taua tangata, e pāorooro tonu nei ana kōrero. Otirā, koinei tētahi o ngā tino pukapuka i pānui ai au. Ānō he kawa no te ao, he utu hoki mō ngā hara, na, i ētahi wā ka ea te utu i te hunga harakore. Na, ka āta ahu atu te waitara ki tōna mutunga maiki, ka hemo te kaipānui i te aroha ki a Tuahangata me te tūmanako whakamomori e parea atu tōna utu. Aeha!