Worms chant

[memoryman]

Has Van Dyke ever offered his interpretation of the Hawaiian chant in Worms/Plymouth Rock? I tried some online Hawaiian dictionaries and the best I could come up with is:

"The divine blessing quivers. The divine blessing is dead still.
In a flash, the multitudes are a speck of dust."

[37!ws]

Somebody else some years ago broke down the chant into possible Hawaiian words, and his translation came out to something like "The time [or epoch] of the king is over, the time of trouble is over, a new era is coming" or something like that, IIRC...

[Andrew G. Doe]

Many many years ago, when the first tapes leaked out, I asked a friend of mine who lives in Hawaii what the chant meant. His reply was that it was gibberish - it sounded like something Hawaiian, but in reality wasn't. Just meaningless syllables.

[memoryman]

It's definitely not meaningless syllables.

"mahalo lule mahalo lula kini waka pula"

Those are real Hawaiian words, but each word has several meanings, making the context difficult to figure out.

from http://wehewehe.org:

MAHALO
nvt.

1. Thanks, gratitude; to thank. Mahalo nui loa, thanks [you] very much. ʻŌlelo mahalo, compliment. Mahalo ā nui, thanks very much. (PPN masalo.)

2. Admiration, praise, esteem, regards, respects; to admire, praise, appreciate. ʻO wau nō me ka mahalo, I am, [yours] respectfully. Ka mea i mahalo ʻia, Mr. Pākī, the esteemed Mr. Pākī. (PEP masalo.)

LULE

1. vi. To quiver, as jello; to sag, as flesh of a fat person; weak, flexible. (PCP lule.)

2. n. A variety of pili grass.
 
LULA

vi. Calm, windless, dead still; bored. Lūlā au i ka hoʻolohe i kāna haʻiʻōlelo, I'm bored listening to his sermon.


KINI

1. num. Multitude, many; forty thousand. Ola nō ia kini i ka limu lomi lima o Kai-lua, the crowd thrives on the hand-massaged seaweed of Kai-lua. (PEP tini.)

2. n. King. Eng. Kini peki, king of spades.

3. n. Kin, relatives. Eng.

4. Also gini n. Gin. Eng.

5. Also tini n. Tin, pail, can. Eng. Kini kākai, pail with a handle. Hale hoʻokomo kini, cannery. Pā kini, tin plate.

6. n. Marble (a child's best marble in the game; kinikini is more common). (Probably Eng. tin.)

7. n. Zinc. Eng.

8. n. Guinea (coin). Eng.

9. n. Jean, Jane, Jennie Eng.

WAKA

1. vs. Sharp, protruding.

2. Same as ʻowaka, wawaka, to flash.

PULA

1. nvi. Particle, as dust; particle in the eye, mote, speck; to have something in the eye. Cf. pulakaumaka. E ʻau mālie i ke kai papaʻu, o pakī ka wai ā pula ka maka, swim quietly in a shallow sea, lest it splash into the eye (be careful!]. (PCP pula.)

2. n. Leafy branch, as of coconut, pandanus, or ʻilima, used as a broom to drive fish into a net and to poke into reef crevices in order to frighten out the fish.

3. nvt. Kindling; to start a fire with kindling.

4. n. A fish, perhaps Pempheris mangula.

In addition, if the words are broken differently (lu le instead of lule) the meaning is different. Mahalo also has a much deeper meaning than the definition above. Check out this link:
http://www.geocities.com/~olelo/shelties/mahalo-aloha.html

[Andrew G. Doe]

Small problem - on all the 1966 tapes, and also on BWPS, Brian quite clearly sings "wahala", not "mahalo"

Small problem #2 - no matter how you put together the translation below, it's still nonsense. For example:

"Thanks, quiver/thanks, boring/Many protuding branch"

or:

"Respectfully, grass/Respectfully, calm/King flash particle"

[JRauch]

MacAndrew once wrote an amazing essay about the Hawaii-aspects of SMiLE. Here's the part about this chant:




III. "Roll Plymouth Rock" - Prayer of thanksgiving

"Mahalo lu le,
Mahalo lu la,
Keeni waka pula"

So runs the Chant - a "prayer of thanksgiving", VDP says. Surely, the fivefold repetition establishes its ritual nature. But a prayer to whom - and for what?

Before we turn to our interpretation attempts, a few preliminaries. First: these may be Hawaiian words, but they are still Van Dyke Parks lyrics. Let's remember that he absolutely loves puns and double or multiple meanings, and there is no reason to believe that he would behave differently in using a pun-friendly tongue like Hawaiian. So, the possible "translations" we will attempt are not to be taken as mutually exclusive alternatives, but as different layers of meaning. Second: all renderings of Hawaiian words into English are transliterations - the key is the sound, not the specific spelling. So "keeni" could be rendered, with equal justice, as "keenee" or "kini". Since all such spellings are matters of convention and editorial choice, we don't think we should let issues of spelling dictate (or frustrate) our analyses. Third: the Chant is no canonic, common, run-of-the-mill prayer. It is almost certainly an original composition by Van Dyke, and it has to be interpreted as such.

Let's go then!

MAHALO does not pose any problem. It's an extremely common word and means simply "thanks, gratitude, praise" and variations thereof. Mahalo nui loa = mahalo a nui = thank [you] very much.
It carries, however, greater spiritual overtones than its English equivalents and is, in fact, the twin word of "aloha", the famous greeting that means all possible variations on the idea of "love" and unsurprisingly finds its own important way in SMiLE.

The problems begin with the following words...

LU:
1) To squander, to scatter (as ashes), to shed (like a tree his leaves). Pau ke kala i ka lu 'ia = all the money was squandered.
2) Seeds of the "pua kala", prickly poppy.
3) Gunshot, so called because the pellets suggested the LU seeds.

LE:
Lazy; to go about aimlessly, to do no work. Ua le akula ka molowa = lazy person just lounges about.

LA:
1) Sun, sun heat; sunny, solar. Ho'o la = to sun, to put out in the sunlight.
2) Day, date. La kakou i keia la = we have much sun today.
3) That, as in "that person", always suffixed. Ua kanaka la = that aforementioned person.
4) Suffix expressing doubt, uncertainty. Pehea la = how, I don't know.

KINI (spelt as KEENI in the SMiLE booklet):
1) Multitude, many. Ola no ia kini i ka limu lomi lima o Kai-lua = the crowd thrives on the hand-massaged seaweed of Kai-lua.
2) King - this meaning is derived from English. Kini peki = king of spades.

WAKA:
1) Sharp, protruding.
2) Flash, lightning flash - with this meaning it's a legitimate variant of 'OWAKA. Ka 'owaka o ka lani = lightning flash of heaven.

PULA:
1) Particle, mote, speck; to have something in the eye. E 'au malie i ke kai papa'u, o paki ka wai a pula ka maka = swim quietly in a shallow sea, lest it splash into the eye (in short, be careful!).
2) Leafy branch, as of coconut or pandanus, used as a broom to drive fish into a net and to poke into reef crevices in order to frighten out the fish.
3) Kindling; to start a fire with kindling.

So a first rough translation might be:

"Aimlessly squandering praise,
Squandering praise to the sun,
Many flashes kindling a fire"

OK: what are we to make of that?

"Aimlessly squandering praise": this suggests the notion of prayers offered in futility. The following line, which introduces the solar connection, seems to support such an interpretation. So: futile prayers to a sun-deity, perhaps.

(Aside: there is a Hawaiian god called Ku, of whom the rising sun is an aspect. Ku is the earliest male god-figure; he stands for the East, for "rising upright." Together with his wife Hina, Ku has "general control over the bounty of earth and generations of mankind". Ku frees people from their faults and errors... "The Ancient Hawaiians worshiped Ku for things such as good crops, good fishing, long life, and family and national prosperity for a whole. For example, early in the morning, prayers are said by fishermen to Ku to help them with their fishing." It may be noted that Ku's mastery over vegetation and the "generations of mankind" echo the elemental/cycle-of-life SMiLE themes. )

It may simply be that the prayers are unavailing: that the gods of the Hawaiians are powerless to save the native culture. Or it may be that the Hawaiians have betrayed those gods, seduced by another power: the western outsiders who were treated, upon their arrival, as gods. In fact, the islanders killed Captain Cook, during his second visit, out of anger at being deceived into thinking him a god.

"To the sun" is not the only possible translation; "in the sun" might be every bit as good. That second line could also be read as "Day of squandering praise" or "Squandering that praise." On balance, it seems to us that the "sun" interpretation is the most convincing. For one thing, it fits squarely with the other SMiLE sun-references: "You Are My Sunshine," of course, but also the "son/sun" puns in "Song For Children"... and, for that matter, the sun graphic that dominates the CD cover. For another, it fits with the third line (see below), establishing a connection between solar heat and the heat of fire.

As for the last phrase - the idea of a fire kindled by sun, or lightning, is very powerful: it suggests heavenly wrath coming down to consume (or purify) the earth... maybe to destroy the colonialists, or the faithless Hawaiians themselves. Clearly the allusion to "fire" is appropriate in the SMiLE context; and the "scattering of ashes" connotation of the word LU adds additional resonance here. However, an alternative translation as "King of flashes kindling a fire" is also a possibility.

If, as suggested above, one is prepared to accept the notion of multiple Parksian meanings here, then there may be other interesting (and complementary) interpretations.

You may have noticed some of the alternate meanings: "gunshot" for LU, "sharp" for WAKA (actually the primary meaning here), "branch (used as a fishing tool)" for PULA. Let's add that the "irregular" spelling KEENI could well highlight a bi-lingual pun combining KINI with the English adjective KEEN (as in "a keen blade"), and we know that Van Dyke is perfectly able of such things! It may be added that repetition of the same word is commonly used in Hawaiian to strenghten concepts, so the "branch" referred to both as KEEN and WAKA could be quite sharp indeed... It seems we have a rather warlike cluster of weapon references here, and here is a possible parallel translation:

"Thanks to aimless gunshot,
thanks to uncertain gunshot,
VERY sharp branch"

Doesn't this seem to picture a battle scene, with Hawaiians attacking by spears and other wooden, pointed weapons and gun-toting enemies missing their shots? Maybe the scene of Captain Cook's killing, as symbol of the violent clash of the two cultures.

(Aside: Captain Cook may have been killed with just such a sharpened branch. A gold-tipped cane, said to be made from the spear that killed the British explorer, was sold at auction in early 2003 for some £135,000 - at the time of this writing, roughly $240,000. The object had been expected to fetch no more than £20,000.)

Wait... there is more yet. The Hawaiian phrases LU LE and LU LA are homophones for the words LULE and LULA:

LULE:
Weak, trembling, flexible; to quiver (as jello), to sag (as flesh of a fat person).

LULA (derived from English "rule"):
1) Rule, regulation, manners, etiquette. Home lula = home rule, limited autonomy.
2) Calm, windless, dead still, bored. Lula au i ka ho'olohe i kana ha'i'olelo = I'm bored listening to his sermon.

So if we allow LULE and LULA as puns, we get:

"Weak thanks,
Thanks for (boring?) rule,
Many flashes kindling a fire"

This interpretation, surely, accords with the themes of colonialism and subjugation of indigenous peoples. "Weak thanks" would be one ironic way of describing a native Hawaiian's reaction to the white "rule" resulting from the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy and the annexation of the islands by the United States. The third line works perfectly well in this translation as well: it seems to seek (or to warn of) heavenly destruction by fire... a godly retribution, presumably, against the usurpers of the land.

It may be, of course, that we will be have to revise these interpretations in whole or in part. That said, they seem to hang together in terms of stand-alone meaning, and they also seem to relate in meaningful ways to the larger SMiLE themes. They constitute a beginning, and that, in terms of SMiLE analysis, is where we stand: at the beginning.

[memoryman]

Small problem - on all the 1966 tapes, and also on BWPS, Brian quite clearly sings "wahala", not "mahalo"

Small problem #2 - no matter how you put together the translation below, it's still nonsense. For example:

"Thanks, quiver/thanks, boring/Many protuding branch"

or:

"Respectfully, grass/Respectfully, calm/King flash particle"

It sounds like wahala to me, but Van Dyke wrote "mahalo." Some people think "over and over the crow cries uncover the cornfield" is nonsense. Language is idiomatic and can obviously be easily mistranslated. I think it was in Korea that the KFC tagline "finger lickin' good" was rendered "so good you'll eat your fingers." Looking at the definitions above and attempting to make sense of it as a "prayer of thanksgiving" may be difficult, but I don't think that that means it's without meaning. Only Van Dyke can give us a translation approximating what he intended.

[jazzfascist]

Small problem - on all the 1966 tapes, and also on BWPS, Brian quite clearly sings "wahala", not "mahalo"

Small problem #2 - no matter how you put together the translation below, it's still nonsense. For example:

"Thanks, quiver/thanks, boring/Many protuding branch"

or:

"Respectfully, grass/Respectfully, calm/King flash particle"

It sounds like wahala to me, but Van Dyke wrote "mahalo." Some people think "over and over the crow cries uncover the cornfield" is nonsense.

Well couldn't that be their excuse? If they could write "nonsense" english lyrics, they could also write nonsense hawaiian lyrics, it didn't have to have a concrete meaning, but just sound like great poetry. Maybe it was dummy words and they were meaning to look up some real hawaiian sentences later. One could imagine that it was something about what the hawaiians said to the first white men, that came to Hawaii and they would look it up later.

Søren

[Andrew G. Doe]

MacAndrew once wrote an amazing essay about the Hawaii-aspects of SMiLE. Here's the part about this chant:




III. "Roll Plymouth Rock" - Prayer of thanksgiving

"Mahalo lu le,
Mahalo lu la,
Keeni waka pula"

So runs the Chant - a "prayer of thanksgiving", VDP says. Surely, the fivefold repetition establishes its ritual nature. But a prayer to whom - and for what?

Before we turn to our interpretation attempts, a few preliminaries. First: these may be Hawaiian words, but they are still Van Dyke Parks lyrics. Let's remember that he absolutely loves puns and double or multiple meanings, and there is no reason to believe that he would behave differently in using a pun-friendly tongue like Hawaiian. So, the possible "translations" we will attempt are not to be taken as mutually exclusive alternatives, but as different layers of meaning. Second: all renderings of Hawaiian words into English are transliterations - the key is the sound, not the specific spelling. So "keeni" could be rendered, with equal justice, as "keenee" or "kini". Since all such spellings are matters of convention and editorial choice, we don't think we should let issues of spelling dictate (or frustrate) our analyses. Third: the Chant is no canonic, common, run-of-the-mill prayer. It is almost certainly an original composition by Van Dyke, and it has to be interpreted as such.

Let's go then!

MAHALO does not pose any problem. It's an extremely common word and means simply "thanks, gratitude, praise" and variations thereof. Mahalo nui loa = mahalo a nui = thank [you] very much.
It carries, however, greater spiritual overtones than its English equivalents and is, in fact, the twin word of "aloha", the famous greeting that means all possible variations on the idea of "love" and unsurprisingly finds its own important way in SMiLE.

The problems begin with the following words...

LU:
1) To squander, to scatter (as ashes), to shed (like a tree his leaves). Pau ke kala i ka lu 'ia = all the money was squandered.
2) Seeds of the "pua kala", prickly poppy.
3) Gunshot, so called because the pellets suggested the LU seeds.

LE:
Lazy; to go about aimlessly, to do no work. Ua le akula ka molowa = lazy person just lounges about.

LA:
1) Sun, sun heat; sunny, solar. Ho'o la = to sun, to put out in the sunlight.
2) Day, date. La kakou i keia la = we have much sun today.
3) That, as in "that person", always suffixed. Ua kanaka la = that aforementioned person.
4) Suffix expressing doubt, uncertainty. Pehea la = how, I don't know.

KINI (spelt as KEENI in the SMiLE booklet):
1) Multitude, many. Ola no ia kini i ka limu lomi lima o Kai-lua = the crowd thrives on the hand-massaged seaweed of Kai-lua.
2) King - this meaning is derived from English. Kini peki = king of spades.

WAKA:
1) Sharp, protruding.
2) Flash, lightning flash - with this meaning it's a legitimate variant of 'OWAKA. Ka 'owaka o ka lani = lightning flash of heaven.

PULA:
1) Particle, mote, speck; to have something in the eye. E 'au malie i ke kai papa'u, o paki ka wai a pula ka maka = swim quietly in a shallow sea, lest it splash into the eye (in short, be careful!).
2) Leafy branch, as of coconut or pandanus, used as a broom to drive fish into a net and to poke into reef crevices in order to frighten out the fish.
3) Kindling; to start a fire with kindling.

So a first rough translation might be:

"Aimlessly squandering praise,
Squandering praise to the sun,
Many flashes kindling a fire"

OK: what are we to make of that?

"Aimlessly squandering praise": this suggests the notion of prayers offered in futility. The following line, which introduces the solar connection, seems to support such an interpretation. So: futile prayers to a sun-deity, perhaps.

(Aside: there is a Hawaiian god called Ku, of whom the rising sun is an aspect. Ku is the earliest male god-figure; he stands for the East, for "rising upright." Together with his wife Hina, Ku has "general control over the bounty of earth and generations of mankind". Ku frees people from their faults and errors... "The Ancient Hawaiians worshiped Ku for things such as good crops, good fishing, long life, and family and national prosperity for a whole. For example, early in the morning, prayers are said by fishermen to Ku to help them with their fishing." It may be noted that Ku's mastery over vegetation and the "generations of mankind" echo the elemental/cycle-of-life SMiLE themes. )

It may simply be that the prayers are unavailing: that the gods of the Hawaiians are powerless to save the native culture. Or it may be that the Hawaiians have betrayed those gods, seduced by another power: the western outsiders who were treated, upon their arrival, as gods. In fact, the islanders killed Captain Cook, during his second visit, out of anger at being deceived into thinking him a god.

"To the sun" is not the only possible translation; "in the sun" might be every bit as good. That second line could also be read as "Day of squandering praise" or "Squandering that praise." On balance, it seems to us that the "sun" interpretation is the most convincing. For one thing, it fits squarely with the other SMiLE sun-references: "You Are My Sunshine," of course, but also the "son/sun" puns in "Song For Children"... and, for that matter, the sun graphic that dominates the CD cover. For another, it fits with the third line (see below), establishing a connection between solar heat and the heat of fire.

As for the last phrase - the idea of a fire kindled by sun, or lightning, is very powerful: it suggests heavenly wrath coming down to consume (or purify) the earth... maybe to destroy the colonialists, or the faithless Hawaiians themselves. Clearly the allusion to "fire" is appropriate in the SMiLE context; and the "scattering of ashes" connotation of the word LU adds additional resonance here. However, an alternative translation as "King of flashes kindling a fire" is also a possibility.

If, as suggested above, one is prepared to accept the notion of multiple Parksian meanings here, then there may be other interesting (and complementary) interpretations.

You may have noticed some of the alternate meanings: "gunshot" for LU, "sharp" for WAKA (actually the primary meaning here), "branch (used as a fishing tool)" for PULA. Let's add that the "irregular" spelling KEENI could well highlight a bi-lingual pun combining KINI with the English adjective KEEN (as in "a keen blade"), and we know that Van Dyke is perfectly able of such things! It may be added that repetition of the same word is commonly used in Hawaiian to strenghten concepts, so the "branch" referred to both as KEEN and WAKA could be quite sharp indeed... It seems we have a rather warlike cluster of weapon references here, and here is a possible parallel translation:

"Thanks to aimless gunshot,
thanks to uncertain gunshot,
VERY sharp branch"

Doesn't this seem to picture a battle scene, with Hawaiians attacking by spears and other wooden, pointed weapons and gun-toting enemies missing their shots? Maybe the scene of Captain Cook's killing, as symbol of the violent clash of the two cultures.

(Aside: Captain Cook may have been killed with just such a sharpened branch. A gold-tipped cane, said to be made from the spear that killed the British explorer, was sold at auction in early 2003 for some £135,000 - at the time of this writing, roughly $240,000. The object had been expected to fetch no more than £20,000.)

Wait... there is more yet. The Hawaiian phrases LU LE and LU LA are homophones for the words LULE and LULA:

LULE:
Weak, trembling, flexible; to quiver (as jello), to sag (as flesh of a fat person).

LULA (derived from English "rule"):
1) Rule, regulation, manners, etiquette. Home lula = home rule, limited autonomy.
2) Calm, windless, dead still, bored. Lula au i ka ho'olohe i kana ha'i'olelo = I'm bored listening to his sermon.

So if we allow LULE and LULA as puns, we get:

"Weak thanks,
Thanks for (boring?) rule,
Many flashes kindling a fire"

This interpretation, surely, accords with the themes of colonialism and subjugation of indigenous peoples. "Weak thanks" would be one ironic way of describing a native Hawaiian's reaction to the white "rule" resulting from the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy and the annexation of the islands by the United States. The third line works perfectly well in this translation as well: it seems to seek (or to warn of) heavenly destruction by fire... a godly retribution, presumably, against the usurpers of the land.

It may be, of course, that we will be have to revise these interpretations in whole or in part. That said, they seem to hang together in terms of stand-alone meaning, and they also seem to relate in meaningful ways to the larger SMiLE themes. They constitute a beginning, and that, in terms of SMiLE analysis, is where we stand: at the beginning.

That is without doubt the funniest, most precious, misguided and transparently lunatic load of old cobblers I have ever read on any BB MB ! I'm still chuckling, and will be for the rest of the day. I thank you for for reposting it, sincerely. As an example of just how far removed from logic & reality someone can get pursuing his idee fixee, it's in a class of its own.

Even allowing that the lyric means anything - and Hawaiian is a language eminently suitable for extracting meaning where none exists - trying to discern a meaning using a Hawaiian-English dictionary and taking it a word at a time (and are the words even right - maybe it's "lule", not "lu le"... also, bear in mind that any lyric printed is wholly a phonetic transcription) is insane. Remember the computer that, reputedly, was asked to translate "out of sight, out of mind" from English into Russian ? When they read the result, the Russian speakers in the team fell about laughing, for the phrase that emerged was "invisible idiot".

Question, and a serious one - has Van Dyke, ever, in his entire career, hinted at a facility in Hawaiian comparable to his use of the English language ? The assumption that he's fluent enough in Hawaiian to make trademark puns is... let's be charitable and say, "unproven".

Back in the mid-80s, I asked a friend of mine resident in Hawaii, a person who used the language daily (and without recourse to a dictionary) what the chant meant, and after one listen he said "nothing, it's gibberish."

[JRauch]

@AGD

Just to make this clear: I have absolutely no idea if the lyrics mean anything or not. Or even if Van Dyke wanted them to mean anything. That's not the point. I just thought that this part of the essay is a nice addition to this thread.

HOWEVER, I wouldn't dismiss the whole essay, because there are some astonishing thoughts and discoveries in it. Or did you know that the lyrics for "Wonderful" are based on a song that Lili'uokalani (last queen of Hawaii, mentioned in "On A Holiday") once wrote?

I'm sure that many essays or writings about SMiLE are over-interpretations. But isn't that a large part of the joy when it comes to art? When it inspires you to think about things that the artist didn´t even thought of? In this special case, that "laughable" essay made me interested in the Hawaiian culture and history. And that's a great thing, imo.

[Andrew G. Doe]

No problem at all with anything that prods my curiosity and makes it sit up. But prying meanings from material that the artist never intended... let's go to Brian's first solo album, and "Baby Let Your Hair Grow Long". Obviously, said some, it's a reference to "Caroline, No". Interesting theory, and persuasive... until you listen to the original demo. Totally different lyric. About walking on the beach...

Or, a geophysical survey once done at Dogubayazit,  the supposed site of Noah's Ark, by a US team dedicated to proving the reality of the object. Deep into the night, the scientists processed the data in many different ways, to no end. No images of planks, nails or whatever. Finally, after 'recalibrating' the equipment to Kingdom Come and back, the required image emerged. Which proves... that as my statistics tutor once said, you get enough data and fiddle with it long enough, you will get the answer you're looking for. 

My, we've come a long way from "Worms".

[Bill Barnyard]

Van Dyke has never said that he wrote the words to this chant. Indeed he expressed surprise when he first heard it.

His story is that he had given Brian a book containing Hawaiian words (a dictionary perhaps?). From this Brian got the idea to put in a prayer or blessing at the end of the song.

Maybe the words used made sense to Brian but it is definitely cobblers in linguistic terms.
 

[Andrew G. Doe]

MacAndrew once wrote an amazing essay about the Hawaii-aspects of SMiLE. Here's the part about this chant:




III. "Roll Plymouth Rock" - Prayer of thanksgiving

"Mahalo lu le,
Mahalo lu la,
Keeni waka pula"

So runs the Chant - a "prayer of thanksgiving", VDP says. Surely, the fivefold repetition establishes its ritual nature. But a prayer to whom - and for what?

Before we turn to our interpretation attempts, a few preliminaries. First: these may be Hawaiian words, but they are still Van Dyke Parks lyrics... the Chant is no canonic, common, run-of-the-mill prayer. It is almost certainly an original composition by Van Dyke, and it has to be interpreted as such.

Problem is, they are not his lyrics, as stated below, which would seem to render the ensuing text redundant. A classic example of the idee fixee (and lord knows, I've had enough of my own).

This is what I like so much about MBs like this - all manner of notions and theories are run up the flagpole, to garner their adherents and detractors, and in time, a consensus emerges based on information supplied by same.  BTW, what was the song written by Lili'uokalani  that informed "Wonderful" ? And is the rest of  MacAndrew's piece available on the net ? I'd really like to read it in context.

[JRauch]

His story is that he had given Brian a book containing Hawaiian words (a dictionary perhaps?). From this Brian got the idea to put in a prayer or blessing at the end of the song.

Didn't know that. Thanks for the info! ... mmh, just a thought, but maybe Brian WANTED these lyrics to make sense, to have a meaning, but failed because of his "limited" knowledge of the language.


@AGD:
I have the essay as Word-document on my PC. I will post it on this thread once I got home from work.

[JRauch]

Ok, here we go (I post it in parts, since it's quite lengthy):



MINO'AKA: ONCE UPON THE SANDWICH ISLES


The Islands were born in fire, far from human eyes.
Rita Ariyoshi, Hawaiian author


I. SMiLE and Hawaii - No gibberish after all

There are many uncommon things about SMiLE - one of them its recurring use of Hawaiian symbols, imagery, themes and lyrics. Hawaii is a keystone in SMiLE, both as a real place and a symbol or allegory.

The Hawaiian archipelago, once also known as the Sandwich Islands, includes more than 130 discrete bodies of land, ranging from the eight principal islands to tiny atolls. Born in fire and surrounded by water - California is some 2,400 miles away, Japan more than 3,800 - the Hawaiian islands are slowly sinking into the sea; the oldest among them, including Midway atoll, are already vanishing beneath the waves. But while the physical Hawaii exists as a chain of islands clustered in the vast Pacific, it also exists in a sort of middle ground between reality and fantasy (like SMiLE itself, one could say).

Perhaps that's why Hawaii's attraction is one of unrealities, a place where our usual perceptions of the world are altered, usually for the better, usually without explanation. The rational doesn't make it to shore. To R. L. Stevenson, one of the islands was "The Isle of Voices," a place "beset with invisible devils" where "day and night you heard them talking with one another in strange tongues," where "little fires blazed up and were extinguished on the beach; and what was the cause of these doings no man might conceive." Somerset Maugham - for whom "the wise traveler travels only in imagination" - found in Honolulu, "I know not why, a feeling of something hotly passionate that beats like a throbbing pulse through the crowd."

The foregoing quotations suggest another truth: Hawaii has always, it seems, occupied a unique place in the western imagination. Decades before SMiLE's creators were born, Mark Twain wrote:

That peaceful land, that beautiful land, that far-off home of solitude and soft idleness, and repose, and dreams, where life is one long slumberous Sabbath, the climate one long summer day, and the good that die experience no change, for they but fall asleep in one heaven and wake up in another.

and

What I have always longed for was the privilege of living forever away up on one of those mountains in the Sandwich Islands overlooking the sea.... no alien land in all the world has any deep strong charm for me but that one, no other land could so longingly and so beseechingly haunt me, sleeping and waking, through half a lifetime, as that one has done. Other things leave me, but it abides, other things change, but it remains the same....

For Americans, in particular, Hawaii has often been seen as a kind of terrestrial paradise: Twain's "heaven" on earth. Long before the first words and notes of SMiLE were conceived, Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys had given exuberant voice to the very same longing that "beseechingly" haunted Twain.

"Surfin' U.S.A." sings the praises of an O'ahu beach beloved of surfers:

All over La Jolla and Waimea Bay
Ev'rybody's gone surfin', surfin' U.S.A.

"Surfin' Safari" documents the worldwide spread of the surfing craze:

I tell you surfin's mighty wild,
It's gettin' bigger ev'ry day,
From Hawaii to the shores of Peru

"California Girls" offers this piece of fashion wisdom:

I dig a French bikini on Hawaii island dolls
By a palm tree in the sand

The song "Hawaii," of course - a song which often shares a concert tracklist with SMiLE at Brian's live appearances - is nothing more or less than a modernized expression of Twain's Hawaiian longing. Even the melodious Hawaiian place names - Honolulu, Waikiki - are sung like talismanic syllables, suggesting that there is magic in the sounds alone:

I heard about all the pretty girls
With their grass skirts down to their knees
All my life I wanted to see
The island called Hawaii

Go to Hawaii
(Hawaii) Hawaii (Hawaii)
Straight to Hawaii (Hawaii, Hawaii)
Oh do (Honolulu, Waikiki) you wanna come along with me
(Do you wanna come along with me)

Even after SMiLE had begun its long hibernation in the tape vaults, Hawaiian themes continued to figure prominently in Brian's music. The instrumental "Diamond Head," which shares some of the innovative compositional techniques of the SMiLE songs, is a highlight of the Friends album. And Smiley Smile features "Little Pad," whose lyrics speak, again, of the very same longing:

If I only had a little pad
In Hawaii

Sure would like to have a little pad
In Hawaii

Van Dyke Parks would also return to Hawaiian themes on his 1989 Tokyo Rose album. But it is in SMiLE, surely, that these themes figure most prominently. In a recent interview, Darian Sahanaja - Brian's musical secretary and a collaborator in the completion of SMiLE - said the following:

Both [Brian] and Van Dyke are enamored by the whole Hawaiian aspect of ["Roll Plymouth Rock"] and throughout SMiLE, they insisted that it end in Hawaii.

This insistence that the geographical and spiritual SMiLE journey end in Hawaii proves, conclusively, that the importance of the Hawaiian theme has been quietly underrated all these years. Till 2004 and for no particular reason - save, it may be supposed, the deeply-ingrained contemporary tendency to negate meaning to most everything - the Hawaiian Chant in "Do You Like Worms?", now "Roll Plymouth Rock", was considered gibberish by almost everybody. Anyway, the lack of printed official lyrics made it very difficult to attempt a translation or interpretation of the short Chant.

Now things have greatly changed.

Van Dyke Parks has confirmed, by revealing the origin of obscure lines as "a diamond necklace played the pawn" (a short story by Guy de Maupassant) and "a muted trumpeter swan" (see later), that nothing in SMiLE is random - all has meaning.

The new "On A Holiday" and (obviously) "In Blue Hawaiii" lyrics highlight the importance of Hawaii, the only place boasting a song title, in the overall SMiLE concept. We have the official lyrics for the Chant in "Roll Plymouth Rock" - and Van Dyke Parks' own confirmation that it is a "Hawaiian prayer of thanksgiving", so no gibberish after all.

So, what is the admittedly very important meaning of Hawaii in SMiLE? To understand it fully, we have to recall that everything in SMiLE plays on three interconnecting levels: the historical, the personal, and the universal.

In the history oriented First Movement, the Hawaii are seen as a real, historical place: namely, the end of the westward expansion of white civilisation. "Westward the course of empire takes its way": so wrote George Berkeley in his 1726 paean to manifest destiny. The only possible end, as Hawaii is the ultimate West: if you sail further West than Hawaii, you reach the date change line and the Far East instead...

In the individual and family life oriented Second Movement, Hawaii seems to be conspicuously absent: but this writing aims, among other things, at showing that it is far from so.

In the elemental, universal oriented Third Movement, Hawaii is prominent again, but now its role is more that of a symbol, an earthly (and watery...) paradise which may itself be taken as an allegory for a spiritual Heaven.

We hope, by the end of this writing, to show that these different ideas point to a unified meaning...

[JRauch]

II. 'Olelo Hawaii

Hawaiian ('Olelo Hawaii), one of the oldest of living languages, is the ancestral language of the Native Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Isles and, along with English, is an official language of the State of Hawaii.

Alas, it is also an endangered language (like the trumpeter swan's...), having been displaced by English almost anywhere and being no longer used as the daily language of communication. An exception is the isle of Ni'ihau which still uses Hawaiian in daily communications, because it is a privately owned island and visitation by outsiders is strictly controlled. Starting around 1900, the number of first-language speakers of Hawaiian diminished from 37,000 to 1,000 - and half of the thousand remaining are now in their seventies or older.

Luckily, once more like the trumpeter swan, Hawaiian is fighting back.

The trumpeters were reduced to 66 in 1933, and at 66, if you are a species you are not just on the brink of extinction, you are practically extinct. None the less, in 2000 they were counted as 23,647. They are still an endangered species, but they are not doomed any more. It's still another story of rebirth associated with SMiLE.

Maybe the Hawaiian tongue is going to join that small but growing club. Native Hawaiians are trying to revive their ancestral language, mainly Hawaiian language "immersion" schools, open to children whose families want to retain, or reintroduce, the tongue back into the next generations. The attempt seems promising.

Obviously, Hawaiian is very different from English and other Indo-European tongues: in fact, it belongs to the Malayo-Polynesian, also known as Austronesian, family of languages, made up of 1244 (!) tongues, among them Samoan, Maori and Fijan, spread throughout the Indian and Pacific Oceans as well as South East Asia. Although covering a large geographical area, these languages are remarkably uniform in structure.

Like many of its Polynesian cousins, Hawaiian is notable for its small set of phonemes. Its alphabet is not ancestral, but is a variant of the Latin alphabet, created in the 19th century by U.S. Missionaries. Before that, it was a spoken-only language.

The alphabet consists of 12 letters and a symbol, making it one of the shortest alphabets in the world. The vowels are the normal a-e-i-o-u, but the consonants only h-k-l-m-n-p-w. The symbol is the 'okina, represented as ' as in O'ahu and pronounced as a glottal stop; to have an idea of it, pronounce uh-oh: the glottal stop is the sound in the middle. There are 162 possible syllables in Hawaiian, the fewest of any language.

Those learning Hawaiian as a second language, without Native Hawaiian speakers as models, normally pronounce Hawaiian words as spelt, with English values for the letters, and use English word order in sentences.

In the Hawaiian language, most words have multiple, and sometimes hidden, meanings. When the language is spoken, the understanding comes from the context of what is being said.

Its loose syntax, prevalence of monosyllabic and bisyllabic words and wealth of meanings for a single word make Hawaiian a true earthly paradise for pun lovers, and that may well be one of the reasons for Van Dyke Parks' fascination with the tongue. In fact, it would be accurate to say that layered meanings and wordplay are "built in" to the language. When one is dealing with such a limited number of phonemes, the assignment of multiple meanings to each one is not a diversion for wordsmiths: it is a precondition for effective day-to-day communication. Hawaiian is a language made of puns.

[JRauch]

III. "Roll Plymouth Rock" - Prayer of thanksgiving

"Mahalo lu le,
Mahalo lu la,
Keeni waka pula"

So runs the Chant - a "prayer of thanksgiving", VDP says. Surely, the fivefold repetition establishes its ritual nature. But a prayer to whom - and for what?

Before we turn to our interpretation attempts, a few preliminaries. First: these may be Hawaiian words, but they are still Van Dyke Parks lyrics. Let's remember that he absolutely loves puns and double or multiple meanings, and there is no reason to believe that he would behave differently in using a pun-friendly tongue like Hawaiian. So, the possible "translations" we will attempt are not to be taken as mutually exclusive alternatives, but as different layers of meaning. Second: all renderings of Hawaiian words into English are transliterations - the key is the sound, not the specific spelling. So "keeni" could be rendered, with equal justice, as "keenee" or "kini". Since all such spellings are matters of convention and editorial choice, we don't think we should let issues of spelling dictate (or frustrate) our analyses. Third: the Chant is no canonic, common, run-of-the-mill prayer. It is almost certainly an original composition by Van Dyke, and it has to be interpreted as such.

Let's go then!

MAHALO does not pose any problem. It's an extremely common word and means simply "thanks, gratitude, praise" and variations thereof. Mahalo nui loa = mahalo a nui = thank [you] very much.
It carries, however, greater spiritual overtones than its English equivalents and is, in fact, the twin word of "aloha", the famous greeting that means all possible variations on the idea of "love" and unsurprisingly finds its own important way in SMiLE.

The problems begin with the following words...

LU:
1) To squander, to scatter (as ashes), to shed (like a tree his leaves). Pau ke kala i ka lu 'ia = all the money was squandered.
2) Seeds of the "pua kala", prickly poppy.
3) Gunshot, so called because the pellets suggested the LU seeds.

LE:
Lazy; to go about aimlessly, to do no work. Ua le akula ka molowa = lazy person just lounges about.

LA:
1) Sun, sun heat; sunny, solar. Ho'o la = to sun, to put out in the sunlight.
2) Day, date. La kakou i keia la = we have much sun today.
3) That, as in "that person", always suffixed. Ua kanaka la = that aforementioned person.
4) Suffix expressing doubt, uncertainty. Pehea la = how, I don't know.

KINI (spelt as KEENI in the SMiLE booklet):
1) Multitude, many. Ola no ia kini i ka limu lomi lima o Kai-lua = the crowd thrives on the hand-massaged seaweed of Kai-lua.
2) King - this meaning is derived from English. Kini peki = king of spades.

WAKA:
1) Sharp, protruding.
2) Flash, lightning flash - with this meaning it's a legitimate variant of 'OWAKA. Ka 'owaka o ka lani = lightning flash of heaven.

PULA:
1) Particle, mote, speck; to have something in the eye. E 'au malie i ke kai papa'u, o paki ka wai a pula ka maka = swim quietly in a shallow sea, lest it splash into the eye (in short, be careful!).
2) Leafy branch, as of coconut or pandanus, used as a broom to drive fish into a net and to poke into reef crevices in order to frighten out the fish.
3) Kindling; to start a fire with kindling.

So a first rough translation might be:

"Aimlessly squandering praise,
Squandering praise to the sun,
Many flashes kindling a fire"

OK: what are we to make of that?

"Aimlessly squandering praise": this suggests the notion of prayers offered in futility. The following line, which introduces the solar connection, seems to support such an interpretation. So: futile prayers to a sun-deity, perhaps.

(Aside: there is a Hawaiian god called Ku, of whom the rising sun is an aspect. Ku is the earliest male god-figure; he stands for the East, for "rising upright." Together with his wife Hina, Ku has "general control over the bounty of earth and generations of mankind". Ku frees people from their faults and errors... "The Ancient Hawaiians worshiped Ku for things such as good crops, good fishing, long life, and family and national prosperity for a whole. For example, early in the morning, prayers are said by fishermen to Ku to help them with their fishing." It may be noted that Ku's mastery over vegetation and the "generations of mankind" echo the elemental/cycle-of-life SMiLE themes. )

It may simply be that the prayers are unavailing: that the gods of the Hawaiians are powerless to save the native culture. Or it may be that the Hawaiians have betrayed those gods, seduced by another power: the western outsiders who were treated, upon their arrival, as gods. In fact, the islanders killed Captain Cook, during his second visit, out of anger at being deceived into thinking him a god.

"To the sun" is not the only possible translation; "in the sun" might be every bit as good. That second line could also be read as "Day of squandering praise" or "Squandering that praise." On balance, it seems to us that the "sun" interpretation is the most convincing. For one thing, it fits squarely with the other SMiLE sun-references: "You Are My Sunshine," of course, but also the "son/sun" puns in "Song For Children"... and, for that matter, the sun graphic that dominates the CD cover. For another, it fits with the third line (see below), establishing a connection between solar heat and the heat of fire.

As for the last phrase - the idea of a fire kindled by sun, or lightning, is very powerful: it suggests heavenly wrath coming down to consume (or purify) the earth... maybe to destroy the colonialists, or the faithless Hawaiians themselves. Clearly the allusion to "fire" is appropriate in the SMiLE context; and the "scattering of ashes" connotation of the word LU adds additional resonance here. However, an alternative translation as "King of flashes kindling a fire" is also a possibility.

If, as suggested above, one is prepared to accept the notion of multiple Parksian meanings here, then there may be other interesting (and complementary) interpretations.

You may have noticed some of the alternate meanings: "gunshot" for LU, "sharp" for WAKA (actually the primary meaning here), "branch (used as a fishing tool)" for PULA. Let's add that the "irregular" spelling KEENI could well highlight a bi-lingual pun combining KINI with the English adjective KEEN (as in "a keen blade"), and we know that Van Dyke is perfectly able of such things! It may be added that repetition of the same word is commonly used in Hawaiian to strenghten concepts, so the "branch" referred to both as KEEN and WAKA could be quite sharp indeed... It seems we have a rather warlike cluster of weapon references here, and here is a possible parallel translation:

"Thanks to aimless gunshot,
thanks to uncertain gunshot,
VERY sharp branch"

Doesn't this seem to picture a battle scene, with Hawaiians attacking by spears and other wooden, pointed weapons and gun-toting enemies missing their shots? Maybe the scene of Captain Cook's killing, as symbol of the violent clash of the two cultures.

(Aside: Captain Cook may have been killed with just such a sharpened branch. A gold-tipped cane, said to be made from the spear that killed the British explorer, was sold at auction in early 2003 for some £135,000 - at the time of this writing, roughly $240,000. The object had been expected to fetch no more than £20,000.)

Wait... there is more yet. The Hawaiian phrases LU LE and LU LA are homophones for the words LULE and LULA:

LULE:
Weak, trembling, flexible; to quiver (as jello), to sag (as flesh of a fat person).

LULA (derived from English "rule"):
1) Rule, regulation, manners, etiquette. Home lula = home rule, limited autonomy.
2) Calm, windless, dead still, bored. Lula au i ka ho'olohe i kana ha'i'olelo = I'm bored listening to his sermon.

So if we allow LULE and LULA as puns, we get:

"Weak thanks,
Thanks for (boring?) rule,
Many flashes kindling a fire"

This interpretation, surely, accords with the themes of colonialism and subjugation of indigenous peoples. "Weak thanks" would be one ironic way of describing a native Hawaiian's reaction to the white "rule" resulting from the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy and the annexation of the islands by the United States. The third line works perfectly well in this translation as well: it seems to seek (or to warn of) heavenly destruction by fire... a godly retribution, presumably, against the usurpers of the land.

It may be, of course, that we will be have to revise these interpretations in whole or in part. That said, they seem to hang together in terms of stand-alone meaning, and they also seem to relate in meaningful ways to the larger SMiLE themes. They constitute a beginning, and that, in terms of SMiLE analysis, is where we stand: at the beginning.

[JRauch]

IV. "On A Holiday" - Capture his melody, and we will party!

"A ukulele lady - a roundalay."

"A shanty town - a chanty in Waikiki. And juxtapose
a man with a mystery. A blue Hawaiian - capture
his melody ..."

As usual for Van Dyke Parks, the lyrics for "On A Holiday" , probably composed at the end of 2003, have multiple layers of meaning. At first sight (and hearing), the song is a lighthearted ditty about the carefree life of a bunch of pirates roaming the Oceans and drinking their fill, with more than a nod to the famous Disneyland ride. On the other hand, Van Dyke himself says that he was interested in the pirate as the most exploitative figure in folklore... and that allows us to suspect more serious intentions.

The Hawaiian theme is briefly introduced in the song by the ukulele lady, who is playing a "roundalay". Now, a roundelay is a poem or song with a refrain that recurs at fixed intervals: again, the slightly irregular spelling highlights the pun with "around a lei", where the lei is the well known Hawaiian garland.

A first candidate is Brian Wilson himself. In fact, Van Dyke says that the lyrics for "On A Holiday" were also inspired by the "pirates" who have kept bootlegging Brian's music, and in particular the SMiLE sessions, all these years. Let us listen to the song under this light. A blue Hawaiian? Brian is an absolute Hawaii lover, almost always wears Hawaiian shirts during the shows, and the adjective "blue" seems very fitting for him. His own main "melody" (SMiLE) has been for years in the hands of bootleggers... and the capture can even be taken in his most literal sense, as some missing session tapes seem to have been actually stolen.

But, of course, the blue man could more simply be a native of Hawaii, and his uncommon colour could be inherited from his homeland, but also refer to a sorrowful disposition, an intriguing twist on the colour's more conventional usage in "In Blue Hawaiii."

On one level, the "capture" may refer to nothing more than the appropriation and exploitation of
traditional Hawaiian musical forms: their absorption into popular American/European music. And that's a perfectly good interpretation. Interestingly, however, there is a particular melody whose "capture" might be seen as an act of cultural usurpation comparable to the usurpation of the land itself.

The Kumulipo ("Source of Life"), an ancient "mele oli" (chant) some two thousand lines in length, is the Hawaiian creation myth. It was memorized by the ancient Kahunas - the high priests - and chanted at all important public events. It has the structure of a roundelay.

The Kumulipo begins during the age known as PO, the age of darkness. It recounts the birth of the original male and female entities, the creation of the eternal spirits, the arrival of the first plants and animals, and finally the dawn of AO, the age of light, during which men and women - ancestors of the Hawaiians - developed from more primitive life forms.

Because the Hawaiians had evolved from these more primitive creatures, they saw themselves as being related, quite literally, to all living things. Hawaiian historian Herb Kawainui Kane puts it so: "The entire universe was an orderly, fixed whole in which all the parts were integral to the whole, including man, himself. Man was descended from the Gods but so were the rocks, so were the animals, so were the fish. Thus man had to regard the rocks, the fish and the birds as his relatives. It's an ecological point of view which western man is only beginning to discover now."

The AO marked the beginning of the age of reason, and it was during this age that the genealogy of the royal Hawaiians began. That genealogy continued, unbroken and reported in the growing Kumulipo, until the late 18th century; thus, it was possible to trace the last royal child directly back to a time when the gods walked the earth and the very first human beings were born.

The event that eventually broke that genealogy took place in 1779. One of the last recorded public recitals of the full Kumulipo took place on January 16 of that year. It was chanted in honor of the arrival of Captain Cook, whom the Hawaiians believed to be the god Lono returning. And so the great chant, the creation myth that explained the place of the Hawaiian people in an ordered universe, came soon to an end. Hawaii itself was taken, the royal line broken, the Kumulipo brought to an end. The "melody" (it is striking that the Hawaiian name for such a chant is "mele oli", very nearly a homophone for "melody") was captured, the people's identity stolen along with their song: an act of piracy too vast for even the most audacious buccaneer. But we know that the worst of pirates never sailed under the Jolly Roger.

[JRauch]

V. Queen Lili'uokalani

"... And Liliuola Kalani will sing to me."

The "Liliuola Kalani" who appears in this line from "On a Holiday" is Lili'uokalani, the last Queen of the Hawaii Islands, who reigned from 1891 to 1893. The pirate narrator corrupts her name to "Liliuola Kalani", probably to make it sound like an entertainer's, but he instead "unwittingly" glorifies her name, because:

OLA:
Life, health, well-being, living, livelihood, means of support, salvation; alive, living, curable, spared, recovered, healed; to live, spare, save, heal, grant life, survive, thrive. Po'aiapuni ola = life cycle.

Queen Lili'uokalani of Hawaii (September 2, 1838 - November 11, 1917), given the Christian name Lydia Lili'uokalani and later named Lydia K. Dominis, was the last monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaii. On September 16, 1862, she married John Owen Dominis, who became Governor of O'ahu and Maui. They had no children; Lili'uokalani's heiress for several years was her niece Victoria Ka'iulani (1875 - 1899).

Lili'uokalani inherited the throne from her brother Kalakaua on January 17, 1891. She immediately tried to issue a new constitution, since the existing one, known as the Bayonet Constitution, limited her political power along with that of native Hawaiians in general. Alas for her, Americans were concerned about their sugar trade there and decided to annex Hawaii. No time was wasted: the American minister in Hawaii at the time, John L. Stevens, ordered troops from the U.S.S. Boston ashore, to "protect" the royal residence, 'Iolani Palace. As it's wont to happen in such cases, the protection proved "ineffective" and the Queen was deposed by force in 1893; on July 4, 1894, the Republic of Hawaii was proclaimed and Sanford B. Dole, also known as the "Sugar King", became its President.

Lili'uokalani was arrested on January 16, 1895, several days after a failed countercoup by Robert Wilcox, when firearms were allegedly found in the gardens of her home. She was thereafter confined to a small room in 'Iolani Palace until 1896, when she was released and returned to her home in Washington Place, where she lived the rest of her life. Hawaii was annexed to the United States through a joint resolution of the U.S. Congress in 1898.

The drama turned to tragedy when the brilliant, strikingly beautiful and beloved young Princess Victoria died in 1899 of a rheumatic fever caught after being surprised by a tropical storm during a horse ride in the mountains. The royal line was broken.

About the "home rule" concept... Interestingly, after Hawaii's annexation to the U.S. a Hawaiian political party developed -- the Home Rule Party -- which rapidly became the overwhelming majority in both houses of Hawaii's legislature. Acting to preserve Hawaiian culture, they passed a law that would have made the Hawaiian version of witch doctors licensed physicians. But the U.S. appointed governor-general of Hawaii, our old acquaintance and former President Sanford B. Dole, vetoed it.

The white establishment fought against the Hawaiian bid for power in other ways. Using wine and women, they overcame the shame of their missionary forebears and managed to seduce a Hawaiian prince, Jonah Kuhio (called Prince Cupid by the whites) to switch from the Home Rule Party into the Republican Party.

Prince Kuhio enjoyed the prestige of being connected to Hawaiian royalty, while the leader of the Home Rule Party, Robert Wilcox, was half white. Wilcox lost to Kuhio in appealing for support from the Hawaiians, and Prince Kuhio succeeded Wilcox as Hawaii's delegate to Washington and as the nominal political leader in Hawaii. He was able to lead enough native voters from the Home Rule Party to the Republican Party that the latter became dominant in the islands, controlling Hawaii's legislative and executive branches of government - a success aided by workers on plantations having been intimidated into voting solidly Republican. Farewell, home rule.

[JRauch]

VI. "Pauahi 'O Kalani" plus "Aloha 'Oe" = "Wonderful"?

And so Queen Lili'uokalani will "sing" to us. Do we know what songs she will sing?

The rather surprising answer is: very probably. Indeed, the Queen was an uncommonly accomplished author and songwriter - she played the piano, organ, ukulele and guitar. Her book "Hawaiii's Story by Hawaiii's Queen" tells the history of her country. She composed and published the first English translation of the Kumulipo, about which she says:

"... The translation of which [the Kumulipo] pleasantly employed me while imprisoned by the present rulers of Hawaii ... being nothing less than the genealogy in remote times of the late King Kalakaua, who had it printed in the original Hawaiian language, -- and myself ... This is the very chant which was sung by Puou, the High Priest of our ancient worship, to Captain Cook ... and as it is the only record of its kind in existence it seemed to me worthy of preservation in convenient form."

Lili'uokalani's best-known musical compositions include the haunting anthem, "Aloha 'Oe" (Farewell To You), and "Pauahi 'O Kalani" (Pauahi, The Royal One), dedicated to her foster sister Pauahi. They are surely songs she would sing... and they are both roundelays.

Pauahi was of most exalted lineage, being the great-granddaughter of legendary King Kamehameha I. She got her name, meaning "finished by fire" or "destroyed by fire", after an aunt who was rescued, in childhood, from a fire. We may notice that this is a nod, in this case probably coincidental, to SMiLE's elemental theme of destructive fire and rescue from it. In the song, Pauahi is both princess and goddess, glimpsed in the seclusion of a sacred forest:

PAUAHI 'O KALANI:
Noho ana ka wahine i ke anu o Mana
Mahalo i ka nani nohea o ka nahele

(Hui:)
E ola 'o Kalani e Pauahi lani nui
A kau i ka pua 'ane'ane
E ola 'o Kalani e Pauahi lani nui
E ola loa no a kau i ka wekiu

Ua 'ike i na paia 'a'ala ho'i o Puna
Ua lei na maile o Pana'ewa ho'i
(Hui)

Ho'i ana no na'e ke aloha i na kini
I ke one hanau i ka home i ke kaona
(Hui)

In English:

PAUAHI, THE ROYAL ONE:
Our lady is there in the coolness of Mana
Admiring the beauty and the glories of the forest

Chorus:
Live, Oh Highness, Pauahi, great royal one
'Til time shall [be] no more
Live, Oh Highness, Pauahi, great royal one
Live long, in truth, supreme in excellence

She knows the fragrances of Puna's bowers
She has worn the maile from Pana'ewa
(Chorus)

Her loving thoughts return to love her kin
To her home, her birthplace, she is returning
(Chorus)

Please confront this song with "Wonderful". Notice that each of the female protagonists "knows how to gather the forest". Like the young woman of "Wonderful," who will "return in love with her liberty," Pauahi "is returning" to "her home, her birthplace." Moreover, Pauahi's "loving thoughts return to love her kin", as it can be assumed for the loving mother and father in "Wonderful".

As for "Mana", it is sometimes a branch, sometimes a fern, and - most importantly - sometimes the divine, miraculous energy which permeates the Universe and can be called upon by people of power. Here, it is most likely all three. In the last and main sense, it is a fair translation of the adjective-turned-noun "Wonderful."

So, the two songs seem to speak practically of the same sort of young goddess/archetype: a "non-believer" may bump into her, but he's blind to the "coolness of Mana"... the Wonderful.

There is only one important difference. In her song, Pauahi mantains her innocence, as was to be expected after all: Lili'uokalani had not taken an abstract subject for her song, but none less than her beloved and exalted foster sister.

The search for this missing connection may guide us to another song by the Queen, "Aloha 'Oe". This song of farewell between two lovers is the most famous of the Queen's compositions, written in 1878. The tune of the verse resembles "The Rock Beside the Sea", composed by Charles Crozat Converse and published in Philadephia, 1857. The melody of the chorus is remarkably close to the chorus of George Frederick Root's composition, "There's Music In The Air", published in 1854. There is a manuscript of "Aloha 'Oe" in Queen Lili'uokalani's handwriting in the Bishop Museum.

Lahilahi Webb and Virginia Dominis Koch tell of a visit by the Queen and her attendants to Maunawili Ranch, the home of Edwin Boyd on windward O'ahu. As they started their return trip to Honolulu on horseback up the steep Pali trail, the Queen, who had turned to admire the view of Kaneohe Bay, witnessed a particularly affectionate farewell between Colonel James Boyd of her party and a lovely young girl from Maunawili. As they rode up the steep cliff and into the swirling winds, she started to hum a melody weaving words into a romantic song. At the top of the Pali, a cloud hung over the mountain peak and slowly floated down Nu'uanu Valley. The Queen continued to hum and completed her song as they rode the winding trail down the valley back to Honolulu. The English translation is by the Queen herself.

ALOHA 'OE:
Ha'aheo ka ua i na pali
Ke nihi a'ela i ka nahele
E hahai (uhai) ana paha i ka liko
Pua 'ahihi lehua o uka

Hui:
Aloha 'oe, aloha 'oe
E ke onaona noho i ka lipo
One fond embrace,
A ho'i a'e au
Until we meet again

'O ka hali'a aloha i hiki mai
Ke hone a'e nei i ku'u manawa
'O 'oe no ka'u ipo aloha
A loko e hana nei
(Hui)

Maopopo ku'u 'ike i ka nani
Na pua rose o Maunawili
I laila hia'ia na manu
Miki'ala i ka nani o ka lipo
(Hui)

In English:

FAREWELL TO YOU:
Proudly swept the rain by the cliffs
As it glided through the trees
Still following ever the bud
The 'ahihi lehua of the vale

Chorus:
Farewell to you, farewell to you
The charming one who dwells in the shaded bowers
One fond embrace,
'Ere I depart
Until we meet again

Sweet memories come back to me
Bringing fresh remembrances of the past
Dearest one, yes, you are mine own
From you, true love shall never depart
(Chorus)

I have seen and watched your loveliness
The sweet rose of Maunawili
And 'tis there the birds of love dwell
And sip the honey from your lips
(Chorus)

Now all this is undoubtedly and movingly romantic, but we know what happened just a few years after poor Lili'uokalani wrote this song, and also know that idylls between uniformed white men and lovely native girls rarely end as romantic hearts would hope. So, maybe the sweet rose of Maunawili, who dwelt in the shaded bowers and surely knew their fragrance, and how to gather the forest, may be taken, from our (alas!) more disenchanted viewpoint, as representative of the loss of innocence to one of the "non-believers" who were about to overcome the Isles.

[JRauch]

VII. An early legendary surfer...

There is a legend in Hawaiian mythology, whose points of contact with some of the themes in this writing may, again, be purely coincidental, but is in any case interesting and compelling enough, in its own right, to be worthy of mention.

EARLY LEGENDARY SURFERS: KAHIKILANI

Forty miles from Ke-kai-o-Mamala, on the North Shore, the beach of Paumalu was known for its big waves, just as it is known, today, by the different name of Sunset Beach.

Once a prince of Kaua'i named Kahikilani crossed the hundred miles of open sea between his home and O'ahu just to prove his prowess in the great Paumalu surf. As soon as he arrived he started surfing. Day after day he perfected his skill in the jawlike waves. As he rode he was watched by a bird maiden with supernatural powers who lived in a cave on a nearby mountain. She fell in love with the prince and sent bird messengers to place an orange lehua lei around his neck and bring him to her. By flying around his head, the messengers guided Kahikilani to the bird maiden's cave.

Enchanted, he spent several months with her -- until the return of the surfing season. Then the distant sizzle and boom of the waves at Paumalu were too much for Kahikilani to resist, and he left the maiden, but only after promising never to kiss another woman. However, the excitement of the rising surf must have clouded his memory because almost as soon as he was riding again, a beautiful woman came walking along the white sand. She saw him there, waited until he rode to shore, placed an ilima lei around his neck, and kissed him. His vow was broken. He thought nothing of it and paddled back out to the breaking waves, but the bird messengers were watching. They flew to tell their mistress of his infidelity. When she heard their report, the bird maiden ran to the beach with a lehua lei in her hand. Snatching the ilima lei from Kahikilani's neck, she replaced it with the one made from lehua blossoms. As she ran back to her cave, he chased her. That was the last Kahikilani saw of the bird maiden, though, for when he was halfway up the mountain she called on her 'aumakua (family god) and Kahikilani was turned to stone.

The image of Kahikilani can still be seen, today, with a petrified lehua lei around his neck on a barren ridge above Paumalu Bay, less than a mile from the Kamehameha Highway. Someone renamed the image "the George Washington Stone."

'AUMAKUA:
"A host of deities called 'aumakua could be called upon for protection, comfort and spiritual support. The first 'aumakua were thought to be the offspring of mortals who had mated with the akua (primary gods). Among the most important of the primary gods were Ku, Kane, Lono and Kanaloa, but it was the 'aumakua that commoners could call on in an easy, less ritualistic way."

It's interesting to reflect on the way this legend relates to the themes of the song in which it is referenced. This legend is, at its core, a story about betrayal. The surfer pledges his fidelity to the bird-maiden, but he breaks that vow - he is seduced by another woman - and he is punished. In fact, his punishment surely seems excessive to us, but in Hawaiian terms breaking a vow is the equivalent of breaking a taboo, the most heinous of crimes.

It may be possible to see this legend as a metaphor for certain key events in Hawaiian history: the arrival of Cook, the end of the Hawaiian monarchy and the establishment of colonial rule over the islands. One might see the surfer, Kahikilani, as a symbol of the Hawaiian people, and the bird-maiden as a symbol of those islands: call her Mother Nature, if you like. (Please notice how the bird-maiden herself, a semi-divine creature who lives alone in cave in the forest, is a close "sister" of both Pahuai 'O Kalani and the girl in "Wonderful".) The vow-binding lei establishes the bond between the islands and the people: they are united, bound together by cultural and religious tradition. But just as Kahikilani is seduced by the beautiful woman, the Hawaiian people are seduced by another power: the western outsiders mistakenly treated - at first - as gods. Like Kahikilani, the Hawaiian people are punished for this betrayal: they endure the overthrow of Hawaiian royalty, the loss of independence, and the suppression of their native culture, religion and traditions. Maybe the transformation into stone - from living being to unliving rock - can be taken as a symbol for the "ribbon of concrete" (partly made of stone) that obliterates virgin forest.

Other details, too, demand attention. The allusion to a mythical surfer connects the "sun-and-surf" exuberance of early Beach Boys music to its forgotten roots: surfing as sacred activity, emblematic of imperiled island traditions ("Surf's Up," indeed!). There is the reinterpretation of the rock formation as an image of George Washington: the literal overwriting of indigenous traditions by the colonialist powers. Both Kahikilani and Washington are mythical figures; replacing one with the other amounts to an assertion of dominion not only over native lands, but also over the mythology associated with those lands. It is tempting to hear an echo of "Plymouth Rock" in "George Washington Rock"; and it is interesting to note that the "shadow box" graphics of the SMiLE packaging include a bust of Washington, quite literally a "George Washington rock".

[JRauch]

VIII. "In Blue Hawaii" - Rebirth by Water (and some other Elements)

"Is it hot as hell in here, or is it me?
It really is a mystery. If I die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take my misery -
I could really use a drop to drink.
Somewhere in a placid pool and sink.
Feel like I was really in the ... PINK!

I lose a dream when I don't sleep. I'm slumberin'.
There's still a promise we must keep - I'm wonderin'.

A wah ha wah - Hawaii. A wah ha wah - Hawaii
lay beyond the sea. (Hawaii beckons to me.)
A wah ha wah - Hawaii.

Oh I could use a drop to drink right now.
In a waterfall, back there in Hawaii -
Take me to a luau now and lay before me.
Wholly Holy Cow!

Down in blue Hawaii. So far away from
blue Hawaii. Aloha nui means goodbye."

This is an all-important moment in SMiLE. According to Van Dyke Parks, the "hot as hell" lyrics are intended to capture the intense immediacy of a crisis of desperation and insight taking place even as we listen; "These words," says VDP, "reveal Brian in the present tense." And in that present-tense moment, the SMiLE dream has turned into a nightmare. The destructive flames have consumed all and the narrator finds himself alone in a crypt, where he erupts into a desperate prayer. Not in vain. Suddenly, the idea of a drop of water comes to his mind and it proves enough to transport him to Hawaii, here more than ever seen in its mythical role as a symbol of paradise - surely hearthly, and maybe Heavenly.

Somebody argued that after all SMiLE ends, disappointingly, simply with a "vacation in Hawaii". Well, everyone is entitled to take things at face value if this is favourable to his/her peace of mind, but we think it's almost always wrong... in this case deeply so.

The Hawaiian part of the lyrics begin with some sonorous syllables that, again, could well be taken as gibberish, but aren't. Let's see:

A:
1) When, at the time when, until, to, as far as, and, and then, but. A hiki mai ia, when he arrives.
2) A protracted period of time or great distance, a long continued action, or emphasis. Mahalo a nui = thanks very, very much.

WA (spelt WAH in the SMiLE booklet):
1) Period of time, epoch, era, time, occasion, season, age. Wa u'i = age of youth and beauty.
2) Space, interval, as between objects or time; in music, one of the four spaces of the staff.
3) Fret of an ukulele, guitar, or similar instrument.

HA:
1) Breath, life; to breathe. Ha ke akua i ka lewa, the god breathed into the open space.
2) Four, fourth. Po'aha = fourth day (Thursday). Ha and multiples of four are sacred or formulistic numbers. Rarely used as an intensifier, as Wai-a-lua, la'i 'eha = Wai-a-lua, of fourfold calm.
3) The note F.

As we see, the word A is often used to indicate a protracted period of time or great distance. The word WA or WAH (a variant spelling which adds to the general sense of elation) is similarly defined as a period of time or an interval in space, but can be the fret of a string instrument. The word HA, which can also have a musical meaning in a note (F) of the scale, refers primarily to sacred breathing, and is therefore associated with the divine power of Mana, which is controlled through prayer, breathing and meditation.

So A WAH HA WAH conveys the idea of a prolonged, intensified ritual based on sacred breathing, possibly with a musical connection as well. Even the overall sound more than suggests breathing... and of course, ritual breathing with a musical connection... say singing?

Now, we also see that the elemental connections are multiple here, not limited to Water by any means. After Fire, with its both destroying and cleansing power, the first drop of Water starts the rebirth journey, which is carried on by Air with the life-giving force of the breathing/singing ritual... then again Water with the second drop of water and the waterfall, and lastly Earth with the luau and the Wholly Holy Cow.

It is interesting how in SMiLE we have met the cow a first time, among the funny, rioting animals in "Barnyard"; then a second time, as a sinister agent of destruction by Fire. Now, the third time, she appears in her typically Eastern "holy" function. Notably, Hawaii was once home to some very real "wholly holy" cows. The first cattle were introduced to the islands by the British Captain George Vancouver in 1793. King Kamehameha, regarding the animals as sacred gifts, placed a taboo ("kapu") on the killing of cattle. By 1830, when the ban was removed, the cattle had become so numerous, and so difficult to control, that the King was obliged to send for Mexican vaqueros to thin the population and train the native Hawaiians in cattle management.

So: a "wholly holy cow" figures, quite literally, in the history of Hawaii's interaction with the colonialist powers. But is she only a cow, albeit holy? Let's see the meaning of some more Hawaiian words:

LUAU:
1) Young taro tops, especially as baked with coconut cream and chicken.
2) Hawaiian feast, named for the taro tops always served at one; this is not an ancient name, but goes back at least to 1856, when so used by the Pacific Commercial Advertiser; formerly a feast was pa'ina or 'aha'aina.
3) The title of the flip-side to the very first Beach Boys record.

KAU:
1) Name of a district in Hawaii, containing a small desert.
2) Period of time, lifetime, any season (especially summer), time of late night before dawn. Kau a kau = season after season; fig., always and forever.
3) A sacred chant, of sacrifice to a deity, or of affectionate greeting to persons, hills, and landmarks; to chant thus. Kau akula ia i keia kau ma ke oli = he offered this sacred chant in the chanted song.
4) The Milky Way (we have already met this in SMiLE...).

So the cow is also a kau, and Van Dyke has scored another still another bi-lingual pun. Notice that a kau could well "lay before me" in all four of the alternative meanings above listed! This is not a simple vacation, after all, but a full-fledged rebirth feast...

[JRauch]

IX. Wait a minute... Fire, Water, Air, Water, Earth? Why Water twice?

Very interesting question. To try and find an answer, we will have to leave Hawaii for a while... and turn to Italy, more precisely the "Divine Comedy" by Dante, for which we will use the stellar translation by Dorothy Sayers.

The last cantos (28-33) of the Purgatorio actually don't take place in Purgatory, but in the (canonic, this tiem) Earthly Paradise, the garden of Eden theatre of the original sin and Adam's and Eve's banishment. Dante, in his role as the traveller in his own poem, has just completed his purifying journey up the mountain of Purgatory and is wandering through the garden, where he meets a beautiful woman, Matilda.

Matilda is a unique character in the Comedy, for the very simple reason that she, alone among the poem's human characters, is not linked to any historical person, but rather seems native of Eden, a symbol of innocence much like the protagonist of "Wonderful" (or "Pauahi 'O Kalani"), with which she shares a lot of traits - a similarity that is worthy of full treatment elsewhere.

For our present purpose, suffice to say that Matilda, far from being only a "decorative" character, has a pivotal importance in Dante's journey, as she is specifically in charge of baptizing him in the two rivers that run through the Earthly Paradise - one that wipes the memory of sin, and one that amplifies the memory of good.

This is a very unusual baptism: it is not the immersion in the waters that accomplishes the intended effect; it is the drinking of the waters. This is the description of the first part of the ritual, the drinking of the waters of Lethe (the waters of oblivion, to borrow a phrase from another great poet):

She stretched forth both hands, and seized me by the crown,
Did that fair lady, and she plunged me in,
So that I needs must drink the water down.
(Canto XXXI, ll. 100-102)

In Canto XXXIII, the second part of the ritual takes place, as Dante drinks of the waters of the river Eunoe, which Dorothy Sayers describes as restoring "remembrance of the sin, but only as an historical fact and as the occasion of grace and blessedness":

"Look, flowing yonder, there is Eunoe;
Conduct him there, and in it, as thy use is,
Restore his fainting powers' vitality."
(Canto XXXIII, ll. 127-129)

So there is a double baptism for Dante... as there is in SMiLE. Following the flames of "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow," the water prayer asks for a "drop to drink - somewhere in a placid pool", and this is sufficient to effect the transition to the Hawaiian paradise. But once there, the "drop to drink" line recurs as the singer asks for a second drink of water, this time in a waterfall... And that seems a necessary preparation for the following luau.

A complete redemption seems to require two separate water rituals - one to escape Hell and forget the old life and evils. We could call this the "redemption" phase. And one for actually restoring the strength and the spirit of the redeemed person and preparing him/her for the new Life. We could call this the "rebirth" phase.

[JRauch]

X. Aloha Nui

To the chagrin of some, the "Prayer" reprise at the end of "In Blue Hawaii" does not end SMiLE... Of course, there is "Good Vibrations" yet. To a mainly music-oriented mind, it's obvious that this avant-garde but still tonal work could not have ended tonally "unresolved" , but this may not be a wholly satisfying explanation. As you will surely have gathered by now, we think that nothing in SMiLE is random, so what could be the meaning of having "Good Vibrations" right at the end? Is it merely to finish "on a high"?

One of SMiLE's main themes, maybe the main one, is innocence, the loss thereof and the return to it. But is it to be seen as a pure cycle? Is the "second" innocence the same as the "first" one? That could argued if SMiLE ended with the "Prayer" reprise, but it doesn't - it ends with a love song. Interestingly, "Good Vibrations" is the first instance in SMiLE (leaving aside the brief exuberance of "Gee," a song which may be regarded as a SMiLE "bookend" corresponding with "Good Vibrations") where love is happy.

Love in "Heroes and Villains" is adventurous at the least, and maybe tragic, depending on how you interpret the lyrics. In "You Are My Sunshine", the tense is changed to past, along with the voice effect. In "Cabin Essence", the bucolic "home on the range" idyll is relentlessly contrasted, as it always is in reality, by the forces of mechanical civilisation. In "Wonderful", love is only the moment of loss of innocence, followed by estrangement. In "I Wanna Be Around/Workshop" there are the pieces of a heart broken "in two" to pick up.

So, the meaning of this all seems obvious. The lot of rarely peaceful things, the "kaleidoscopic whirlwind", that have happened before "Good Vibrations" has not been in vain... only after all has happened and all has been destroyed, and after redemption and rebirth, the Holy Grail of happiness in love is reached. The primal innocence, symbolised by the mostly solitary protagonist of "Wonderful", is not enough: it must be lost, and then regained - as the children's song told us, after the columnated ruins domino, at the end of "Surf's Up". History has to happen, and be transcended.

We had promised, at the beginning of this writing, that we would try and show how all the multiple literal, symbolic and allegorical uses of the Hawaii Isles in SMiLE point to a unified meaning.

Hawaii is absolutely pivotal in SMiLE. Item: as we said before, it's the only place boasting a song title. Item: the only real places explicitly named, beyond Plymouth Rock, are Hawaii and parts therof. Item: the only real person named is Hawaii's last Queen. So, it must be no trivial meaning...

In our opinion, this meaning is simply Love: Aloha in Hawaiian, in the widest possible sense.

ALOHA:
Love, mercy, affection, sympathy, kindness, grace, greeting, sweetheart, lover, loved one; beloved, loving, kind, compassionate, charitable, lovable; to love, to be fond of, to venerate, to greet; Greetings! Hello! Good-bye! Farewell! Aloha kaua, may there be friendship or love between us.

NUI:
Big, large, great, greatest, grand, important, principal, prime, many, very much. Aloha nui, aloha nui loa, aloha a nui = very much aloha.

It is interesting, and probably not at all coincidental, that Brian ends his live SMiLE shows with a performance of a song whose title embodies the two most common meanings of the word "Aloha": "Love and Mercy."

Like Hawaii, Love is always menaced by the forces of power, but somehow manages to always emerge again, unscathed, with its different kind of power, redemptive and life-giving. And of course, together with the idea of Love goes the idea of the eternal feminine, of Woman - the Wahine. Please take a look at the last of the song illustrations in the SMiLE booklet, that associated with "Good Vibrations": it depicts a Nature Goddess who would surely not be out of place in the Hawaiian pantheon, an effect enhanced by the mirror image which surrounds the song's symmetrical lyrics.

"'Aloha' was a recognition of life in another. If there was life there was mana, goodness and wisdom, and if there was goodness and wisdom there was a god-quality. One had to recognize the 'god of life' in another before saying 'Aloha,' but this was easy. Life was everywhere ... Aloha had its own mana. It never left the giver but flowed freely and continuously between giver and receiver. 'Aloha' could not be thoughtlessly or indiscriminately spoken, for it carried its own power. No Hawaiian could greet another with 'Aloha' unless he felt it in his own heart. If he felt anger or hate in his heart he had to cleanse himself before he said 'Aloha'." (Queen Lili'uokalani)
 

[JRauch]

P.S. Wow, that took me some time to write it off with the two-finger-system....


....wait...THERE'S A COPY-FUNCTION!?!?!  !!!!DAMN!!!!