| Aloha kakou apau,
Eia kekahi mea a’u i kakau ai he mau makahiki i hala aku nei.
Here’s something by me written some years ago (which have passed).
Ke hana penei i keia he “Blog” no ho’i no ka mea ‘o ko’u mana’o e kokua aku
i ka po’e e makemake e nana i na mahele, he WA, ‘elua wale no i ‘unuhi ‘ia ai.
I do here now this as a “Blog” because it is my thought to help the people
who want to look as the sections (mahele), as WA, only two translated.
In other words, only two (‘elua) of sixteen (‘umikumaono = 10 + 6) WA (mahele,
divisions of the chant) were published in 1981, and the other 14 were not
included in Volume One, allowing time for another Volume Two to follow,
but that did not happen.
Therefore, after these published Kawena Johnson translations have been
put on the Kumu K Blog, the other 14 (‘umikumaha = 10 + 4) WA (mahele)
chants, including the papa helu lists of ancestors (male + female), will
be added.
From time to time I will add other commentaries or introduce other
manuscripts or publications to help with background history or other
necessary information.
For example, I should explain why the chants are called WA,
which means the “open mouth”, as when a child breathes and cries
with the open back vowel (waaaaa) and becomes a living person.
When the child has lived to be at the time his life ends, then
he will have a “closed mouth” and be silent (MU). WA and MU
mean the same as the sacred syllable OM, which is AUM, except
that in Hawaiian, no syllable ends in a consonant, so AUM, OM
is WAUM(U), the Hawaiian equivalent which is also seen in
images which have the “open mouth” or the “closed mouth”
meaning the beginning of life and the end of life in the carved
faces of images on the Hawaiian temple (heiau).
aloha no,
Rubellite Kawena Johnson
Emerita Professor of Hawaiian Language and Literature
Department of Indo-Pacific Languages,
University of Hawaii-Manoa
Honolulu, Hawaii |
Kumu K's Blog 