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wcerto
Ahonui
USA
5052 Posts |
 Posted - 12/07/2006 : 4:54:16 PM
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I have heard a couple of stories about the meaning of this song. One I heard on a DVD by Sonny Chillingworth (I think it was Ray Kane's "Ki ho`alu: That's Slack Key Guitar") or maybe a CD of Sonny's -- is that it is a story about a paniolo who fell into a lava tube on the Big Island; the guy had one beeg voice yelling for help, but no one helped him and somehow he escaped on his own "O never mind" -- he doesn't need kokua.
In "Na Mele Aloha", Puakea's translation is much more risque. He talks about "Oh never mind, if we tumble together, it is fine."
On huapala.org, it speaks about a lynching of an innocent man, and it says that the Kanakaleonui is not a man with a big voice, it is a prominent hill high up the slopes of Mauna Kea.
The hui is the same as Pu`uohulu, but that song is about grieving over a lost love.
Very big different in mana`o, if you ask me, between lynching a guy or taking a lovely tumble together listening to the birds, or crying over a lost love.
It doesn't even seem like kaona to me...the versions straight out say what they are trying to say....yea?
Any thoughts. You see, I get confused, because I am just learning the language, and just when I think I understand something, I find that I actually do not. So I just read 'em over and over and over.
Mahalo,
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Me ke aloha
Malama pono,
Wanda |
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Russell Letson
`Olu`olu
USA
504 Posts |
Posted - 12/07/2006 : 4:59:06 PM
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Oddly enough, George Kahumoku has introduced it as a hangover song--a cowboy waking up after a big night-before. I confess I had trouble with that one (having baby-ducked on Sonny's moving spoken intro/outro), but then George could have been singing a completely different lyric and my less-than-primitive Hawaiian would not have caught it.
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Mika ele
Ha`aha`a
USA
1493 Posts |
Posted - 12/07/2006 : 9:16:25 PM
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| And to make it even more confusing, Kindy Sproat sings the same melody, adds/subtracts a few verses and calls the song, Pu'u Huluhulu -- Hill with the fuzz on it. The hill that guides the cowboys to the corral. |
E nana, e ho'olohe. E pa'a ka waha, e hana ka lima. |
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dagan
Aloha
37 Posts |
Posted - 12/23/2006 : 11:47:19 PM
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this is a very good post. meaning in hawaiian music can be very difficult to pinpoint. variables can include where you are from, who you play with and how you learned a particular song. the following is just my personal experiences with the song kaula 'ili, each performer has their own interpretaion and reason for playing the song...
the main verse that starts "ho'o ma kaukau kou kaula 'ili" is indeed about a cowboy from waimea that had a certain experience during the night that led him to conclude, "oh never mind, ke hina pu ua hiki no." interpret that as you will. as for the other verse that places the song on o'ahu. if we look at the fourth line of that verse, we can see a similarity in lyrics as it ends "ulu no au ia oe, ua hiki no" it is very common in hawaiian music to string songs together. the connection can be made in terms of melody, lyrics or theme, so it becomes very difficult to see what a song means on the surface...
each artist plays a song for a reason, and their own life experiences make that song happen, that is the beaty of hawaiian music.
db |
www.daganb.wordpress.com
www.paniolomusic.com |
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wcerto
Ahonui
USA
5052 Posts |
Posted - 03/05/2007 : 4:02:51 PM
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I just got a copy of "Songs of the Hawaiian Cowboy - Na mele o Paniolo", and sure enough track number 8 is Pu`u Huluhulu. Track 7 has Kindy Sproat explaining what the song is about -- that the paniolo used the hill with fuzz on top as a landmark to know they were taking the pipi down the right way; they knew they were getting close to home when they saw that hill. But sure enough...there is a verse that starts....."Ho`omakaukau kou kaula `ili", etc. The translation on the liner notes says "Go get your lassos ready for the battle, And if you fall, never mind, you'll make it through. The part that says "I luna o ka pu`u Kanakaleonui" is translated as "high up on the peaks of the mountain". That lends credence to one interpretation I read that said Kanakaleonui was a hill on the Big Island, as opposed to a man with a big voice. Quite interesting, the different takes on the same words.
By the way, that CD has a couple of songs done by Gary Haleamau. Pretty hard to come by any of his stuff nowadays. I stumbled over it on amazon.com. |
Me ke aloha
Malama pono,
Wanda |
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