- `Auhea wale `oe e ka manu
- Ku`u hoa `alo leo o ka pö anu
-
- Mea `ole ia anu a i ka mana`o
- Ke ko`i`i koi mau a ka pu`uwai
-
- Na wai no `oe e pakele aku
- Ua like me ka liko a`o ka lehua
-
- Ka maka o ka lehua ka mea aloha
- Ka wehi holu mai ma ka hikina
-
- E honi kaua e ke aloha
- Ke noe mai nei ka pua lehua
-
- Alia `oe a`e pülale mai
- A hala o maile lau kapalili
-
- He lili ka mana`o o ke kapena
- Na`ale po`ipü a`o ka moana
-
- Ua ana pono `ia ko`u mana`o
- E ka lei hulu nani hulu melemele
-
- He mele kaulana no Nihoa
- Ua hui Kane`ohe me Pohoiki
-
- Ha`ina `ia mai ana ka puana
- Goodbye käua me ka `eha`eha
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- Listen, you bird
- My companion who weathers
gossip of the cold night
-
- This cold is nothing to my
mind
- The heart's desire is ever
urgent
-
- Who can escape you
- You are like the bud of the
lehua
-
- The eye of the lehua is what I
love
- The adornment that sways to the
coming
-
- Let`s kiss, love
- The lehua flower mists
-
- Don`t rush me
- The maile's leaves are
trembling
-
- Jealous is the mind of the
captain
- Engulfing are the waves of the
ocean
-
- My mind is made up
- Lei of beautiful feathers,
golden feathers
-
- Nihoa's song is famous
- Joined were Kane`ohe and
Poho`iki
-
- The story is told
- We say goodbye with great
pain
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Source: Hula
Records Album: "Alice Ku`uleialohapoina`ole
Nämakelua" translated by Alice
Namakelua - In the 1850's, a love affair between a Kohala
boy and Hilo girl was opposed by her parents. As a young
girl, Alice Nämakelua, met the boy, who was by then a
man in his fifties, heard the song and listened to the
bittersweet tale. Verse 1, stanza 2 and verse 2, stanza 1,
is the parents' opposition fed by gossip. Liko lehua, maka
lehua, lei hulu are all ways of describing a sweetheart in
terms of nature. Liko lehua or bud of the lehua means a
very young sweetheart. Verses 6 and 7 are the girl's words,
the other verses, quoting the boy. The captain in verse 7
may represent the parents who still have control over the
young lovers. The opposition on both sides engulf the
lovers like the waves of the ocean. Verse 9, the place
names, Kane`ohe (bamboo man) on O`ahu and Poho`iki (small
hollow), an inlet near Kalapana, in the Ka`u district of
Hawai`i, represents the distance between the lovers. Nihoa
may mean their love is barren like the island. Neither of
them ever married.
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