Ahukupanaha

00:00 / 02:23

This song describes a trip I took with Jody when we first started dating. We went from Humuʻula on the Hilo side of Maunakea along the Mana rd to Waimea. We stopped at various places that my father had taken me as a child. My father spent a lot of time in this area while in his teens working cattle and helping his uncle who was a Territory Forest Ranger.

While the song talks about literal places, the kaona is actually describing the qualities of Jody that I love. The sun shinning on her hair, her graceful movement like the delicate Palai Fern swaying in the breeze, the amazing beauty of the silversword flower. The English translation is not a word for word translation. Many times there are no English word that match the Hawaiian so English phrases are used to try to capture the Hawaiian meaning.

Ahu kupanaha

I ka la I ke kula

Ke kula anuanu

O laumai’a

Ike hou ana

I ka nani a’o

Palai ka’a huli lole

O Nauhi

Ma’i ma’ i ia pua

I ka ahinahina

Ka ahinahina

O Pu’u Kī

Mahalo a’e

I kou nani

Hooheno Ka mana’o

O Keanakolu

Ka waiho

I ka hela

I ka malie

O Hanaipoe

Ha ina ia mai

Anakapuana

He mele huaka’i

Ame ku’u ipo

Wondrous

Is the sun on the uplands

The cool uplands

of Laumaiʻa

Looking again

At the beauty that surrounds

the Palai (fern) the sways (in the breeze)

of Nauhi

Delicate is the flower

Of the silver sword plant

The silversword plant of Puʻu kī

Appreciation surrounds

for your beauty

Cherish the thought

Keanakolu

Placed before

out in the flats

in the clam

is Hanaipoe

Tell the story

of the trip with

my sweetheart

Laumaiʻa is a land section at about the 6,000 ft elevation on Maunakea. There used to be a cowboy cabin here. Lit Banana leaf.

Nauhi is a stream that the Mana rd on Maunakea crosses. My father said there used a be a cowboy cabin here in the 1930ʻs Donʻt know what Nauhi means.

Palai: A native fern (Microlepia setosa), In Hawaiian poetry it was a metaphor for love.

Mauka of Keanakolu used to be a Ranger Cabin called Puʻu Kī. A silversword plant grew near the cabin. The cabin has since burned down and the Silversword is gone.

Puʻu Kī lit hill of Tī plant

Keanakolu is a Ranger Cabin located along the Mana Rd to Waimea. It lit means three caves.

Hanaipoe is a cowboy cabin out in flat lands that descend to Waimea. Unk what Hanaipoe means.