Ke Ea O Ka 'Āina

I am trying, in my spare time, to familiarize myself with the Hawaiian language. I won't say I'm trying to learn it (though I am) because without formal instruction or anyone to talk to, it really isn't possible. But the self teaching is paying off, every once in a while, I just get something. 

Recently I was listening again to the song Hawai'i '78 by Irael Kamakawiwo'ole. This is a great song with most of the lyrics in English, except for a haunting introduction which plays on the motto of Hawai'i. This single sentence is symbolic of the beautiful construction of the language and offers a great segue into how descriptive the language can be, especially in Hawaiian songs about the land itself, which is what I'll talk about in this post.

Ua mau ke ea o ka 'āina i ka pono.

Let us break this down. Ua is a tense marker, it says that the action that follows occurred in the past. Mau means (among other things) preserve. So ua mau means (in this case) preserved. Ke ea means life; ka 'āina is land; and pono means (among others) goodness or righteousness. Putting it all together, the motto of Hawai'i says, in english:

The life of the land is preserved in righteousness.

The Hawaiian language features many words that have different meanings, depending upon the context. It is what makes the language such a delightful puzzle. For example, if you find the lyrics for Iz' song on the web, you'll find that some well-meaning haole translated our example sentence into something involving a constant rain falling on the land. What were they thinking? It turns out we can forgive them in this case because ua can also mean rain, and mau can also mean endless or ceaseless. Hence ua mau can indeed mean an endless rain.

I love the way the Hawaiian language provides for so many ways to describe things in a positive way. Of course people, things and places can be described this way, but these terms are frequently used in song and chant, both traditional and contemporary, in describing the land, the sea, mountains, trees, flowers, shells and other artifacts of the Hawaiians deep love for their land. 

Hanohano - glorious, magnificent, honored, distinguished

Hemolele - perfect, faultless, pristine

Kaulana - famous, celebrated, renown

Kūkilakila - majestic

Lani - heavenly

Pono - goodness, righteousness

The terms are often combined. My personal favorite is hemolele i ka malie or pristine in calmness. Think about that for a moment, if you've ever cleared your mind and just experienced a sunset, sunrise, or the view of distant snow-capped mountains on a calm day, you have witnessed something hemolele i ka malie. I think the way the Hawaiians say these things is more poetic than mere english allows, reflecting an appreciation of the land that has evolved over thousands of years.