Nalo Meli (Honey Bee) - Words & music by Alice Namakelua


E aha `ana `oe e ka nalo meli
Mûkîkî pua aloalo
Maluna malalo pau na ono
Ke ki`i ana ia a ka nalo meli

`A`ohe pua kau `ole a ka meli
Pau o ke aloalo me ka melia
Ke kiawe o ka hau me ke kuawa
Na pua ono ia a ka nalo meli

Ha`ina `ia mai ana ka puana
No ka nalo kau i ka pua aloalo
Maluna malalo pau na ono
Ke ki`i ana ia a ka nalo meli


What are you doing little honey bee?
Sipping the sweet from the hibiscus bloom
From the top to the bottom you gather sweets
That`s the trick of the little honey bee

There’s lots of choice for the honey bee
It picks the hibiscus and the plumeria
The kiawe, the hau and guava, too
That’s the trick of the little honey bee

This is the story I have told you
Of the bee that sits on the hibiscus
From the top to the bottom gather all the sweets
That’s the trick of the little honey bee


Source: "Aunty Alice Namakelua’s Lifetime Hawaiian Compositions" - July 31, 1960, the composer went to visit her friends, but they were not at home. She waited in her car for their arrival and watched the bees gathering nectar from the different flowers. This was the inspiration for this song. Alice Namakelua was 59 years old when she composed this song and 78 when she translated it. Copyright 1973, Heinz Guenther Gerhard Pink