Unwritten Literature of Hawaii

N >> Nathaniel Bright Emerson >> Unwritten Literature of Hawaii

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[Footnote 318: _Liloa_. A famous king of Hawaii who had his
seat in Waipi'o.]

[Footnote 319: _Wahine pii ka pali_, Haina-kolo, a mythical
character, is probably the one alluded to. She married a king
of Kukulu o Kahiki, and, being deserted by him, swam back to
Hawaii. Arrived at Waipi'o in a famishing state, she climbed
the heights and ate of the _ulei_ berries without first
propitiating the local deity with a sacrifice. As an
infliction of the offended deity, she became distraught and
wandered away into the wilderness. Her husband repented of
his neglect and after long search found her. Under kind
treatment she regained her reason and the family was happily
reunited.]

[Footnote 320: _Lau laau_. Leaves of plants.]

[Footnote 321: _Hoolaau_. The last part of this word, _laau_,
taken in connection with the last word of the previous verse,
form a capital instance of word repetition. This was an
artifice much used in Hawaiian poetry, both as a means of
imparting tone-color and for the punning wit it was supposed
to exhibit.]

[Footnote 322: _Ua pe'e pa Kai-a-ulu o Waimea_. _Kai-a-ulu_ is
a fierce rain-squall such as arises suddenly in the uplands
of Waimea, Hawaii. The traveler, to protect himself, crouches
(_pe'e_) behind a hummock of grass, or builds up in all haste
a barricade (_pa_) of light stuff as a partial shelter
against the oncoming storm.]

[Footnote 323: _Kai_. Taken in connection with _Kai-a-ulu_ in
the preceding verse, this is another instance of verse
repetition. This word, the primary meaning of which is sea,
or ocean, is used figuratively to represent a source of
comfort or life.]

[Footnote 324: _Keoloewa_. The name of one of the old gods
belonging to the class called _akua noho_, a class of deities
that were sent by the necromancers on errands of demoniacal
possession.]
[Page 163]

[Translation]

_A Name-song of Kamehameha_

In Waipi'o stands Paka'alana,
The sacred shrine of Liloa.
Love to the woman climbing the steep,
Who gathered the ulei berries,
5 Who ate of the uncooked herbs of the wild, 5
Craving the swaying fruit like a hungry child.
A covert I found from the storm,
Life in my sea of delight.

The text of this mele--said to be a name-song of Kamehameha
V--as first secured had undergone some corruption which
obscured the meaning. By calling to his aid an old Hawaiian
in whose memory the song had long been stored the author was
able to correct it. Hawaiian authorities are at variance as
to its meaning. One party reads in it an exclusive allusion
to characters that have flitted across the stage within the
memory of people now living, while another, taking a more
romantic and traditional view, finds in it a reference to an
old-time myth--that of _Ke-anini-ula-o-ka-lani_--the chief
character in which was _Haina-kolo_. (See note _e_.) After
carefully considering both sides of the question it seems to
the author that, while the principle of double allusion, so
common in Hawaiian poetry, may here prevail, one is justified
in giving prominence to the historico-mythological
interpretation that is inwoven in the poem. It is a
comforting thought that adhesion to this decision will suffer
certain unstaged actions of crowned heads to remain in
charitable oblivion.

The music of this song is an admirable and faithful
interpretation of the old Hawaiian manner of cantillation,
having received at the hands of the foreign musician only so
much trimming as was necessary to idealize it and make it
reducible to our system of notation.

EXPLANATORY NOTE

_Hoaeae_.--This term calls for a quiet, sentimental style of
recitation, in which the fluctuating trill i'i, if it occurs
at all, is not made prominent. It is contrasted with the
_olioli_, in which the style is warmer and the fluctuations
of the i'i are carried to the extreme.

Thus far we have been considering the traditional indigenous
music of the land. To come now to that which has been and is
being produced in Hawaii by Hawaiians to-day, under
influences from abroad, it will not be possible to mistake
the presence in it of two strains: The foreign, showing its
hand in the lopping away of much redundant foliage, has
brought it largely within the compass of scientific and
technical expression; the native element reveals itself, now
[Page 164] in plaintive reminiscence and now in a riotous _bonhommie_, a
rollicking love of the sensuous, and in a style of delivery
and vocal technique which demands a voluptuous throatiness,
and which must be heard to be appreciated.

The foreign influence has repressed and well-nigh driven from
the field the monotonous fluctuations of the i'i, has lifted
the starveling melodies of Hawaii out of the old ruts and
enriched them with new notes, thus giving them a spring and
_elan_ that appeal alike to the cultivated ear and to the
popular taste of the day. It has, moreover, tapped the
springs of folk-song that lay hidden in the Hawaiian nature.
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]

[Illustration:
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-shiver,
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 class 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 grass
(_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.

2. Maanei mai kaua,
He welina pa'a i ka piko,
A nau no wau i imi mai,
A loaa i ke aheahe a ka makani.

_Chorus_.

[Page 169]

[Translation]

_Resemblance_

1. When the rain drums loud on the leaf,
It makes me think of my love;
It whispers into my ear,
Your love, your love--she is near.

_Chorus_:

Thou art the end of my longing,
The crown of evening's delight,
When I hear the cock blithe crowing,
In the middle watch of the night.

2. This way is the path for thee and me,
A welcome warm at the end.
I waited long for thy coming,
And found thee in waft of the breeze.

_Chorus_.

XIII--Song, Pili Aoao
By permission of the Hawaiian News Co. (Ltd.)
Arranged by H. BEEGER
[Music]

NOTE.--The composer of the music and the author of the mele
was a Hawaiian named John Meha, of the Hawaiian Band, who
died some ten years ago, at the age of 40 years.

1. O ka ponaha iho a ke ao.
Ka pipi'o malie maluna,
Ike oe i ka hana, mikiala,
Nowelo i ka pili aoao.

_Chorus_:

Maikai ke aloha a ka ipo--
Hana mao ole i ka puuwai,
Houhou liilii i ka poli--
Nowelo i ka pili aoao.

2. A mau ka pili'na olu pono;
Huli a'e, hooheno malie,
Hanu liilii nahenahe,
Nowelo i ka pili aoao.

_Chorus_.

[Page 170]

The author of the mele was a Hawaiian named John Meha, who
died some years ago. He was for many years a member of the
Hawaiian Band and set the words to the music given below,
which has since been arranged by Captain Berger.

[Translation]

_Side by Side_

1. Outspreads now the dawn,
Arching itself on high--
But look! a wondrous thing,
A thrill at touch of the side.

_Chorus_:

Most dear to the soul is a love-touch;
Its pulse stirs ever the heart
And gently throbs in the breast--
At thrill from the touch of the side.

2. In time awakes a new charm
As you turn and gently caress;
Short comes, the breath--at
The thrill from the touch of the side.

_Chorus_.

The fragments of Hawaiian music that have drifted down to us
no doubt remain true to the ancient type, however much they
may have changed in quality. They show the characteristics
that stamp all primitive music--plaintiveness to the degree
almost of sadness, monotony, lack of acquaintance with the
full range of intervals that make up our diatonic scale, and
therefore a measurable absence of that ear-charm we call
melody. These are among its deficiencies.

If, on the other hand, we set down the positive qualities by
the possession of which it makes good its claim to be classed
as music, we shall find that it has a firm hold on rhythm.
This is indeed one of the special excellencies of Hawaiian
music. Added to this, we find that it makes a limited use of
such-intervals as the third, fifth, fourth, and at the same
time resorts extravagantly, as if in compensation, to a fine
tone-carving that divides up the tone-interval into fractions
so much less than the semitone that our ears are almost
indifferent to them, and are at first inclined to deny their
existence. This minute division of the tone, or step, and
neglect at the same time of the broader harmonic intervals,
reminds one of work in which the artist charges his picture
with unimportant detail, while failing in attention to the
strong outlines. Among its merits we must not forget to
mention a certain quality of tone-color which inheres in the
Hawaiian tongue and which greatly tends to the enhancement of
Hawaiian music, especially when thrown into rhythmic forms.

The first thing, then, to repeat, that will strike the
auditor on listening to this primitive music will be its lack
of melody. The voice goes wavering and lilting along like a
canoe on a rippling ocean.

[Illustration: PLATE XVIII
HALA FRUIT BUNCH AND DRUPE WITH A "LEI"
(PANDANUS ODORATISSIMUS)]

[Page 171]
Then, of a sudden, it swells upward, as if lifted by some
wave of emotion; and there for a time it travels with the
same fluctuating movement, soon descending to its old
monotone, until again moved to rise on the breast of some
fresh impulse. The intervals sounded may be, as already said,
a third, or a fifth, or a fourth; but the whole movement
leads nowhere; it is an unfinished sentence. Yet, in spite of
all these drawbacks and of this childish immaturity, the
amateur and enthusiast finds himself charmed and held as if
in the clutch of some Old-World spell, and this at what
others will call the dreary and monotonous intoning of the
savage.

In matters that concern the emotions it is rarely possible to
trace with certainty the lines that lead up from effect to
cause. Such is the nature of art. If we would touch the cause
which lends attractiveness to Hawaiian music, we must look
elsewhere than to melody. In the belief of the author the
two elements that conspire for this end are rhythm and
tone-color, which comes of a delicate feeling for
vowel-values.

The hall-mark of Hawaiian music is rhythm, for the Hawaiians
belong to that class of people who can not move hand or foot
or perform any action except they do it rhythmically. Not
alone in poetry and music and the dance do we find this
recurring accent of pleasure, but in every action of life it
seems to enter as a timekeeper and regulator, whether it be
the movement of a fingerful of poi to the mouth or the swing
of a _kahili_ through the incense-laden air at the burial of
a chief.

The typical Hawaiian rhythm is a measure of four beats,
varied at times by a 2-rhythm, or changed by syncopation into
a 3-rhythm.

These people have an emotional susceptibility and a sympathy
with environment that belongs to the artistic temperament;
but their feelings, though easily stirred, are not persistent
and ideally centered; they readily wander away from any
example or pattern. In this way may be explained their
inclination to lapse from their own standard of rhythm into
inexplicable syncopations.

As an instance of sympathy with environment, an experience
with a hula dancer may be mentioned. Wishing to observe the
movement of the dance in time with the singing of the mele,
the author asked him to perform the two at one time. He made
the attempt, but failed. At length, bethinking himself, he
drew off his coat and bound it about his loins after the
fashion of a pa-u, such as is worn by hula dancers. He at
once caught inspiration, and was thus enabled to perform the
double role of dancer and singer.

It has been often remarked by musical teachers who have had
experience with these islanders that as singers they are
prone to flat the tone and to drag the time, yet under the
stimulus of emotion they show the ability to acquit
themselves in these respects with great credit. The native
[Page 172] inertia of their being demands the spur of excitement to keep
them up to the mark. While human nature everywhere shares in
this weakness, the tendency seems to be greater in the
Hawaiian than in some other races of no higher intellectual
and esthetic advancement.

Another quality of the Hawaiian character which reenforces
this tendency is their spirit of communal sympathy. That is
but another way of saying that they need the stimulus of the
crowd, as well as of the occasion, even to make them keep
step to the rhythm of their own music. In all of these points
they are but an epitome of humanity.

Before closing this special subject, the treatment of which
has grown to an unexpected length, the author feels
constrained to add one more illustration of Hawaii's musical
productions. The Hawaiian national hymn on its poetical side
may be called the last appeal of royalty to the nation's
feeling of race-pride. The music, though by a foreigner, is
well suited to the words and is colored by the environment in
which the composer has spent the best years of his life. The
whole production seems well fitted to serve as the clarion of
a people that need every help which art and imagination can
offer.

XIV--Hawaii Ponoi
Words by King KALAKAUA
Composed by H. BERGER
[Music:]

[Illustration: PU (TRITON TRITONIS)
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
BULLETIN 38 PLATE XIX]

[Page 173]

[Page 174]

_HAWAI'I PONOI_

1. Hawai'i ponoi,
Nana i kou Moi,
Ka lani Ali'i,
Ke Ali'i.

_Refrain_:

Makua lani, e,
Kamehameha, e,
Na kaua e pale,
Me ka ihe.

2. Hawai'i ponoi,
Nana i na 'li'i,
Na pua muli kou,
Na poki'i.

_Refrain_:

3. Hawai'i ponoi
E ka lahui, e,
O kau hana nui
E ui, e.

_Refrain_.

[Page 175]

[Translation]

_Hawaii Ponoi_

1. Hawaii's very own,
Look to your sovran Lord,
Your chief that's heaven-born,
Who is your King.

_Refrain_:

Protector, heaven-sent,
Kamehameha great,
To vanquish every foe,
With conquering spear.

2. Men of Hawaii's land,
Look to your native chiefs,
Your sole surviving lords,
The nation's pride.

_Refrain_:

3. Men of Hawaiian stock,
My nation ever dear,
With loins begirt for work,
Strive with your might.

_Refrain_.
[Page 176]

XXII.--GESTURE

Gesture is a voiceless speech, a short-hand dramatic picture.
The Hawaiians were adepts in this sort of art. Hand and foot,
face and eye, and those convolutions of gray matter which are
linked to the organs of speech, all worked in such harmony
that, when the man spoke, he spoke not alone with his vocal
organs, but all over, from head to foot, every part adding
its emphasis to the utterance. Von Moltke could be reticent
in six languages; the Hawaiian found it impossible to be
reticent in one.

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