Awka is both a translator of AWK programs to ANSI C, and a separate library against which the C code is linked. The aims of Awka are to allow creation an executable that provides generally better performance than AWK interpretors, to allow easy inclusion of AWK logic in larger C applications, and use of external C functions within AWK scripts.
Awka has moved... to awka.sourceforge.net I've tried updating the above links, but no luck. If the freshmeat.net admin guys could correct them I'd be very grateful :)