Click Title to Access Melody
Nânâ i kou mô`î
Ka lani ali`i,
Ke ali`i
Hui:
Makua lani ê,
Kamehameha ê,
Na kaua e pale,
Me ka ihe
Hawai`i pono`î
Nânâ i nâ ali`i
Nâ pua muli kou
Nâ pôki`i
Hawai`i pono`î
E ka lâhui e
`O kâu hana nui
E u`iê
King David Kalakaua 
Captain Henri Berger
- Hawaii`s own true sons
- Be loyal to your chief
- Your country's liege and lord
- The chief
Chorus:- Royal father
- Kamehameha
- Shall defend in war
- With spears
Hawaii`s own true sons- Look to your chief
- Those chiefs of younger birth
- Younger descent
Hawaii`s own true sons- People of loyal heart
- The only duty lies
- List and abide
- Be loyal to your chief
Princess
Kaiulani
-
Prince Komatsu
Source: Cunha's Songbook
Copyright 1898 by Hugo Schlam - Lot, Kamehameha 5, wanted a gift
of music for his people and asked Kaiser
Wilhelm I of Germany to send a bandmaster to Hawai`i. Henri Berger arrived
June 5, 1872 and organized the Royal Hawaiian band who perfomed
June 11,1872,
after 5 days of practice. This first performance of the Royal Hawaiian
band introduced "Hymn to Kamehameha I "which Berger re-wrote
for the first celebration of King Kamehameha Day. The melody was
based
on the Prussian hymn originally titled "Heil Dir
Im Siegerkranz". The words by King David Kalâkaua was set
to the Hymn to Kamehameha I in 1874, and was first sung by the Kawaiaha`o
Church Choir, on King Kalâkaua`s birthday, Nov. 16, 1874. The King
made a state visit to Japan on March 4, 1881, and was received lavishly
by Emperor Mutsuhito. Landing at the Bay of Yeddo, Yokohama, he was greeted
by a Japanese military band playing his song. During the visit, Kalakaua
proposed the marriage of his niece, 5-year-old Princess Kaiulani to Prince
Yamashina Komatsu Sadamoro, the 15- year-old nephew of the emperor.
The
emperor replied that the prince was already betrothed. Upon Kalakaua's
return to Hawaii, he received formal letters from Foreign Minister Inouye
Kaoru and Prince Komatsu politely declining the offer of marriage to
the Hawaiian princess. Thirteen years later, Jan. 29, 1894, Queen Lili`uokalani
wrote to Princess Kaiulani asking the princess to marry and choose a
suitable mate from Prince David Kawananakoa, Prince Jonah Kûhiô or
Prince Komatsu,
the Japanese Prince. In a letter to the Queen, June 22, 1894, Princess
Kaiulani rejected all three princes writing "I feel it would be wrong
if I married a man I did not love. I should be perfectly unhappy, and
we should not agree and instead of being an example to the married women
of today, I should become like them, merely a woman of fashion and
most
likely to flirt". The Hawaii legislature proclaimed Hawai`i Pono`i the
state anthem in 1967. Music clip by Lani Lee