Unwritten Literature of Hawaii Part 38

This same influence has also caused to germinate a Hawaiian appreciation of harmony and has endowed its music with new chords, the tonic and dominant, as well as with those of the subdominant and various minor chords.

The persistence of the Hawaiian quality is, however, most apparent in the language and imagery of the song-poetry. This will be seen in the text of the various mele and oli now to be given. Every musician will also note for himself the peculiar intervals and shadings of these melodies as well as the odd effects produced by rhythmic syncopation.

The songs must speak for themselves. The first song to be given, though dating from no longer ago than about the sixth decade of the last century, has already scattered its wind-borne seed and reproduced its kind in many variants, after the manner of other folklore. This love-lyric represents a type, very popular in Hawaii, that has continued to grow more and more personal and subjective in contrast with the objective epic style of the earliest Hawaiian mele.

IX--Song, Poli Anuanu Arranged by Mrs. YARNDLEY _Andante cantabile_ [Music]

[Ill.u.s.tration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 38 PLATE XVII HAWAIIAN MUSICIAN PLAYING ON THE UKU-LELE (By permission of Hubert Voss)]

[Page 165]

_Poli Anuanu_

1. Aloha wale oe, Poli anuanu; Maeele au I ke anu, e.

2. He anu e ka ua, He anu e ka wai, Li'a kuu ill I ke anu, e.

3. Ina paha, Ooe a owau Ka i pu-kuku'i, I ke anu, e.

He who would translate this love-lyric for the ear as well as for the mind finds himself handicapped by the limitations of our English speech--its scant supply of those orotund vowel sounds which flow forth with their full freight of breath in such words as _a-lo-ha_, _po-li_, and _a-nu-a-nu_. These vocables belong to the very genius of the Hawaiian tongue.

[Translation]

_Cold Breast_

1. Love fain compels to greet thee, Breast so cold, so cold.

Chilled, benumbed am I With the pinching cold.

2. How bitter cold the rainfall, Bitter cold the stream, Body all a-s.h.i.+ver, From the pinching cold.

3. Pray, what think you?

What if you and I Should our arms enfold, Just to keep off the cold?

The song next given, dating from a period only a few years subsequent, is of the same cla.s.s and general character as Poli Anuanu. Both words and music are peculiarly Hawaiian, though one may easily detect the foreign influence that presided over the shaping of the melody.

[Page 166]

X--Song, Hua-hua'i Arranged by Mrs. YARNDLEY Moderato [Music:]

_Huahua'i_

He aloha wau ia oe, I kau hana, hana pono; La'i ai ke kaunu me ia la, Hoapaapa i ke kino.

_Chorus_:

Kaua i ka huahua'i, E uhene la'i pili koolua, Pu-kuku'i aku i ke koekoe, Anu lipo i ka palai.

[Page 167]

[Translation]

_Outburst_

O my love goes out to thee, For thy goodness and thy kindness.

Fancy kindles at that other, Stirs, with her arts, my blood.

_Chorus:_

You and I, then, for an outburst!

Sing the joy of love's encounter, Join arms against the invading damp, Deep chill of embowering ferns.

The following is given, not for its poetical value and significance, but rather as an example of a song which the trained Hawaiian singer delights to roll out with an unctuous gusto that bids defiance to all description:

XI--Song, Ka Mawae By permission of the Hawaiian News Co., of Honolulu Arranged by H. BERGER [Music:]

NOTE.--The music to which this hula song is set was produced by a member of the Hawaiian Band, Mr. Solomon A. Hiram, and arranged by Capt. H. Berger, to whom the author is indebted for permission to use it.

_Ka Mawae_

A e ho'i ke aloha i ka mawae, I ke Kawelu-holu, Papi'ohuli.[325]

Huli mai kou alo, ua anu wau, Ua pulu i ka ua, malule o-luna.

[Footnote 325: _Papi'o-huli_. A slope in the western valley-side at the head of Nuuanu, where the tall gra.s.s (_kawelu_) waves (_holu_) in the wind.]

[Page 168]

[Translation]

_The Refuge_

Return, O love, to the refuge, The wind-tossed covert of Papi'ohuli.

Face now to my face; I'm smitten with cold, Soaked with the rain and benumbed.

XII--Like no a Like By permission of the Hawaiian News Co. (Ltd.) Arranged by H. BERGER [Music]

_Like no a Like_

1. Ua like no a like Me ka ua kani-lehua; Me he la e i mai ana, Aia ilaila ke aloha.

_Chorus_:

Ooe no ka'u i upu ai, Ku'u lei hiki ahiahi, O ke kani o na manu, I na hora o ke aumoe.