The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #119776   Message #2650304
Posted By: Q (Frank Staplin)
06-Jun-09 - 09:15 PM
Thread Name: 'Rare' Caribbean shanties of Hugill, etc
Subject: RE: 'Rare' Caribbean shanties of Hugill, etc
Hawaiian songs about whaling exist in writings left by Hawaiian seamen, but no chanteys found so far. Some 5000 Hawaiian seamen are listed in port shipping records, 1842-1867 alone.
The newspapers of Hawai'i from 1834- may have poetry and songs, but they are only beginning to be digitized.

Kaulana ke anu i Alika,
Ka lalawe i ka ili a puni.
(Famous is the cold of the Arctic,
Overwhelming your entire body.)

The first account here has some interesting descriptions of the Inuit.
http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/6778/1/JL40105.pdf

The following are the first few lines of a song by Ku, of O'ahu, a whaling song he wrote in the 19th c.

Makemake na Au e 'Ike ia Kaleponi

Makemake na au e 'ike ia Kaleponi
I ka 'aina o ka nani a me ka maika'i.
Maika'i 'oko'a no ke kai kuono o
Hukekona.
He nani Papine me Kaliona.
Ka home i aloha 'ia na na holokahiki
I aloha 'ia i ka leo ho'oholehole o ka
hulipahu,
I na olelo ke aloha a ke kolomeki.

The entire whaling song by Ku in "Na Mele Welo: Songs of Our Heritage," Bishop Museum Press, 1995. Reproduced in the following, p. 46. No translation provided.

http://pnclink.org/pnc2005/chi/Presentation-PDF/081-Susan%20A.%20Lebo-Aus%20Panel.pdf