Halau Hula Ewa Lani

http://www.halaumohalailima.com/HMI/Maluakiiwai_Ke_Aloha.html This is as sweet a love song as can be found in Hawaiian literature. Our most reliable sources – Joseph ‘Īlālā‘ole, Akoni Mika, and Mary Kawena Pukui – identify it as a mele inoa composed in the mid-1800s for Kapakuhaili Hakaleleponi Kalama (1817-1870), the queen consort of Kamehameha III. The first verse of Queen Kalama’s name chant introduces us to Māluaki‘iwai – the beloved, water-fetching sea breeze of Hilo, Hawai‘i – as it moistens the tender flower bud of a māmane tree. The māmane and its delicate, golden-yellow blossoms are regularly associated, in monarchy-period poetry, with women of rank, beauty, and character; an adorning-chant in honor of Ka‘iulani, for example, begins with the lines “I Mauna Lahilahi ko wehi / ‘O ka pua māmane melemele” and offers the princess a lei of these blossoms in lieu of a crown. In the case of “Maluaki‘iwai ke Aloha,” we can readily identify the māmane tree as Queen Kalama, the Mālua b...