Ka Manu - Traditional

 

`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
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

 

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.