Project KULEANA │ Kaulana Nā Pua

In this edition of Angel Watchers, I am featuring an incredible music video called "Kaulana Nā Pua (Famous Are The Flowers)", that was produced by Project KULEANA.  "Kaulana Nā Pua" is a Hawaiian patriotic song written by Eleanor Kekoaohiwaikalani Wright Prendergast in 1893, as a form of protest for the violent overthrow of Queen Liliʻuokalani and the Hawaiian Kingdom.  She wrote it specifically for the Royal Hawaiian Band, which is still in existence today.  "Kaulana Nā Pua" can be understood to be an act of subterfuge, since to the non-Hawaiian speaking listener, the lively melody gives no hint of the political intensity and implied sedition of its lyrics.  It was the only way that the Hawaiians living in 1893 could safely show their support for the Hawaiian Monarchy.  "Kaulana Nā Pua" is a statement of rebellion against the Provisional Government of Hawaii, that demanded,among other things, that the government workers sign a loyalty agreement in order for them to continue employment.  Many people resisted doing this, including the members of the Royal Hawaiian Band who went on strike.  Needles to say, the subtle nuances of the Hawaiian language, coupled with the hidden meanings, and double entendres of the lyrics, escaped the notice of the usurpers of the Royal House of Kamehameha.  "Kaulana Nā Pua" indeed captures the anguish and dismay of the Hawaiian people perfectly.  Queen Liliʻuokalan  was deposed on January 17, 1893.  Project KULEANA has created an awe inspiring version of "Kaulana Na Pua" that features some of Hawaii's best singers and musicians.  By-the-way, this video gives me a chance to showcase the unearthly beauty of my home state of Hawaii.  Safe journeys to all the fans of Angel Watchers, wherever you may be.

Kaulana Nâ Pua

by  Ellen Keho`ohiwaokalani Wright Prendergast

 Kaulana nâ pua a`o Hawai`i
Kûpa`a ma hope o ka `âina
Hiki mai ka `elele o ka loko `ino
Palapala `ânunu me ka pâkaha
   
Pane mai Hawai`i moku o Keawe
Kôkua nâ Hono a`o Pi`ilani
Kâko`o mai Kaua`i o Mano
Pa`apû me ke one Kâkuhihewa
   
`A`ole a`e kau i ka pûlima
Ma luna o ka pepa o ka `ênemi
Ho`ohui `âina kû`ai hewa
I ka pono sivila a`o ke kanaka
   
`A`ole mâkou a`e minamina
I ka pu`u kâlâ o ke aupuni
Ua lawa mâkou i ka pôhaku
I ka `ai kamaha`o o ka `âina
   
Ma hope mâkou o Lili`ulani
A loa`a ê ka pono o ka `âina
*(A kau hou `ia e ke kalaunu)
Ha`ina `ia mai ana ka puana
Ka po`e i aloha i ka `âina

Famous are the children of Hawai`i
Ever loyal to the land
When the evil-hearted messenger comes
With his greedy document of extortion
    
Hawai`i, land of Keawe answers
Pi`ilani's bays help
Mano's Kaua`i lends support
And so do the sands of Kakuhihewa
    
No one will fix a signature
To the paper of the enemy
With its sin of annexation
And sale of native civil rights
    
We do not value
The government's sums of money
We are satisfied with the stones
Astonishing food of the land

We back Lili`ulani
Who has won the rights of the land
*(She will be crowned again)
Tell the story
Of the people who love their land

Kubla Khan │ Samuel Taylor Coleridge

In this edition of Angel Watchers I am featuring "Kubla Khan", by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.  Safe journeys to all the fans of Angel Watchers, wherever you may be.

Kubla Khan
 By Samuel Taylor Coleridge

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.

So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round:
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!
A savage place! as holy and enchanted
As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover!
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced:
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail:
And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean:
And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war!

The shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves;
Where was heard the mingled measure
From the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!

A damsel with a dulcimer
In a vision once I saw:
It was an Abyssinian maid,
And on her dulcimer she played,
Singing of Mount Abora.
Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight 'twould win me
That with music loud and long
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome! those caves of ice!
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honey-dew hath fed
And drunk the milk of Paradise.