Inauguration art and poetry

[darkemeralds]

This is beautiful.

Art work and words about Inauguration Day, Washington, and America. Brought tears to my eyes. Especially the helicopter.

Comments

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Oh, those are lovely!

I keep getting distracted and forgetting to make a LJ post about it, but of all the inaugural madness that's been going on in DC, the event that gave me the most chicken skin was a Virginia halau performing a mele inoa composed in Obama's honor. (I recorded the second performance on my phone -- video here if you want to see more. Image quality is about as cruddy as you'd expect, the other YouTube clip on the halau's own webpage is sharper, but the guy filming that one kept cutting away from the dancers...)

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

Tears are running down my face. When those women started to move, after the long intro, I just started crying. The motion of the "ancient hula," as we used to call it, is incredibly beautiful.

I can't help thinking that there's something very powerful in Obama's Hawaii connection--that somehow, that violent grace that formed the Islands, and the powers of the Hawaiian gods, are a part of his world-view, and that these dancers created a halau for him is a very powerful blessing.

Thank you for posting the video. Any idea what the chant was saying? I think I caught two words.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Oh, the kahiko is such a powerful, sacred thing -- and that whole weekend event at the NMAI was just amazing, the atmosphere was so warm and joyous and prayerful and spirit-filled; many of the presenters commented on it. I was getting chills and teary-eyed watching it, and it still gets to me revisiting it even in grainy online vids. I'm just incredibly sad that there's only two videos up from the name chant so far, both amateur -- there was a proper camera crew from the Smithsonian running about but all they've put on YouTube so far are brief clips from a few different performances.

I'm also very, very sorry that I wasn't able to wade through my silly phone's menus fast enough to get Kumu Ikaika's introduction, because he was actually talking about exactly the sort of things you mention here, particularly about how being born on the land gives you a special mana that you carry with you through the rest of your life. (The guy who shot the video from the previous day did get the introduction to that performance, but the kumu hula must have been extemporizing instead of giving a scripted speech because that intro is quite different from the one he gave on Sunday.)

There's full text and translation on Halau Ho'omau's page that I linked above, and also in the "More Info" section on my video...I *think* whoever was typing it in on their webpage may have accidentally left out one word from the English version of the 'oli, though...not that I am any kind of expert on 'olelo Hawai'i, but the English seemed to have one noticeable puka in it, and poring over the Pukui-Ebert dictionary I think I got what was missing there. But here it all is once more for posterity's sake: the oli is the first version that was pure unacommpanied chant, the mele is the sung version for the actual hula.

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

Now I'm all crying again because of those beautiful words.

And yay! I did hear "o ka aina". Hee! I remember the state motto, I guess.

Thank you again. Marvelous.

Chant and translation

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

<sub>Oli: HE KAMA O HAWAI'I (Son of Hawai'i)

Nana i ke ali'i, ke kanaka ikaika
Look at our leader, a strong person is he
Keiki o ka 'aina i ka pono e
A child from the land of righteousness
He pua o Hawaii, i kuhia i alaka'i
A child of Hawai'i destined to lead
Nana e ho'oulu i ka pono, aloha e
Who will make goodness flourish, with aloha
'Ike 'ia ma ka lani la ka hikina 'ana mai
Signs in the heavens tell of the coming of a new chief
Ka 'imi 'ana i ka pono me ke aloha
Working for righteousness with love
E ha'aheo mau e ka lei o ka 'aina
Always be proud, oh child of the land
Ko aloha la ea, ko aloha la ea
Keep your love, embody your love
Paulele 'ia ihola ka hulina
Belief in change is instilled in the heart
'Oiai mau ke ea o ka 'aina i ka pono
For the life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness
I mau aloa'a ka lei o ka lanakila
Always go forward and receive the garland of victory
'O ka 'ike kupuna me ke one hanau ka lamaku e malamalama mau e
May the wisdom of the ancestors and the sands of your birth be the torch to light the way

E ola mai
Ka pono o ke ao
E aloha e
May the goodness of the new day live and flourish
Oh, there be the breath of life

He inoa no Barack Obama
A name song for Barack Obama


Mele: HIKI MAILA KE ALI'I HO'OULO (The leader of inspiration comes)

E nana i ke ali'i, he kanaka ikaika
Look at our leader, a strong person is he
He keiki o ka 'aina kupono la e
A child from the land of righteousness
He pua o Hawai'i, i kuhia i alaka'i
A child of Hawai'i destined to lead
Nana e ho'oulu i ka pono, aloha e
Who will make goodness flourish, with aloha
'Ike 'ia ma ka lani la ka hikina 'ana mai
Signs in the heavens tell of the coming of a new chief
Ka 'imi 'ana i ka pono me ke aloha
Working for righteousness with love
Paulele 'ia ihola ka hulina
Belief in change is instilled in the heart
'Oiai mau ke ea o ka 'aina i ka pono
For the life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness
Ha'ina 'ia mai ana ka puana
Let the story be known in the telling
Hiki mai ke alaka'i e ho'oulu hou
The leader to renew inspiration has come

Uluhia maila
ke ola o ka 'aina
The living essence of the land flourishes

Aloha no, e
We offer loving regard, indeed

He inoa no Barack Obama
A name song for Barack Obama</sub>

That translation (except for the one bit about the dawning day) is straight from the halau's page; I can expand a little bit into some of the poetic phrasing that wasn't translated completely literally, if that's the sort of thing that interests you...

Re: Chant and translation

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

You amaze me. Truly, you do.

Re: Chant and translation

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Awwww, shucks...Manu Ikaika and Puakea Nogelmeier and the ladies of the halau and the late Aunty Kawena and Samuel Ebert are the amazing ones here -- all I did was use my oh-so-l33t "copy and paste" and "when in doubt, look stuff up" skills... :)

[elistaire.livejournal.com]

The mountains, and the tassle. Wow.

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

*waves*

I friended you over at IJ, where it looks like you blog about great stuff! Thank you for stopping by and commenting.

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

Oh! I see that we have a mutual friend in tehomet whose wit and wanderings I admire greatly. And yes, it was the selection of details that made that work so poetic and wonderful.

[serenity-valley.livejournal.com]

Oh so lovely. Thank you for sharing that. The plastic flowers in the rest stop bathroom made me teary-eyed, for some reason.

And I, too, loved the helicopter image. I would make a great LJ icon, non? It used another pic on my blog that I thought was particularly apropos...you'll appreciate it:

http://missbitty.blogspot.com/2009/01/city-of-blinding-lights.html

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

Glad you enjoyed. It delighted me on so many levels. I think it was the juxtaposition of "plastic" and "noble" in the postcard of the restroom flowers that touched me, but yeah, can't say exactly why.

I liked your icon idea.

[serenity-valley.livejournal.com]

Hee! I like.

At that scale, it looks more like a dragonfly than a helicopter with the second vilest human in the world on board. There's something very poetic about that.

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

Hee! I know! Isn't it awesome?

Though, dragonflies of the world resent the implication.

[kispexi2.livejournal.com]

Very inspiring and heart-warming. I love how it melds political ideals with real life.

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

It's something to do with juxtaposition, I think, that makes the piece so poetic. Glad you enjoyed it.