The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #39684   Message #564669
Posted By: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
03-Oct-01 - 10:54 PM
Thread Name: Your Favorite Hawaiian Songs
Subject: Lyr Add: ADIOS, ADIOS, KE ALOHA (Leleiohoku)
Adios, Adios, ke aloha, by Leleiohoku (rev. Lili'uokalani?) is my favorite. In this song, the Hawaiian is not difficult to pronounce (vowels as in Spanish). The first hapa haole song?

Eku'u belle o ka po la'ila'i
Ka lalawe malie a ka mahina
Koani mai ana e ke ahe
Ahea la 'oe e ho'olono mai?
Chorus:
Ahea 'oe. ahea 'oe
'Oe e ho'olono mai?
I neia leo nahenahe
Adios, Adios ke aloha
Adios, Adios ke aloha
E ka hau'oli 'iniki pu'uwai
E ke aloha e maliu mai 'oe
Ke ho'olale mai nei e ke Kiu
Ua anu ka wao i ke ua

Ho'okahi kiss dew drop
he mau ia
E ka belle o ka noe lihau
Ka huli ho'i nei me ka neo

Oh my belle of the quiet night
As the moon moves slowly by
The breeze blows gently forth
When is it that you will listen to me?

When, when
When will you listen to me?
To this gentle voice
Adios, Adios, my love
Adios, Adios, my love
O happiness that tugs at my heart
O my love listen to me
For the Kiu wind is pushing along
And the forest is chilled by the rain

One kiss of a dew drop is better
Than nothing at all
O belle of the gentle rain
Here I am, my love
As I turn back empty handed.

This song was written in the late 19th Century in appreciation of the paniolos, or Mexican cowboys brought in to round up the cattle left on the Big Island by Vancouver and others. The last names of some of the paniolos are lost, but a number of families on Hawai'i and Moloka'i bear the name Espaniola. These vaqueros, little known on the Mainland, were in Hawai'i before the cattle days of the American west. The song thus has a good story to go along with it.