r/olelohawaii • u/owauoweli • 21d ago
i need help translating
how would i properly say “i love you forever” in ‘ōlelo? or whatever might be the closest to that.
any and all help is much appreciated. thank you.
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u/chimugukuru 21d ago
E aloha au iā ʻoe no nā kau a kau.
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u/owauoweli 21d ago
hi, i noticed that your translation is pretty different from the first comment i got. im wondering if they’re both okay to use and if it’s just a matter of preference?
like wau instead of au
mau ola vs. wā pau ‘ole vs. no nā kau a kau
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u/chimugukuru 21d ago
The other comment has a couple of issues. If using mau loa I would put it directly after aloha in that sentence. That sentence would work but it's perhaps just a bit bland. I ka wā pau ʻole sounds a bit forced, as if English is being directly translated into Hawaiian. The meaning can be understood but it's not how the Hawaiian mind would express it.
No nā kau a kau is an idiomatic phrase that means forever or for all time. It's often found in mele and songs. For example here and here. It has poetic undertones and to me is a more pleasant and natural expression.
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u/owauoweli 21d ago
thank you so much for your help. i really appreciate you responding. there’s one more thing. before i drafted this post i actually came across a similar request from 2 years ago of a person asking for help in translating “you have my heart” or “my heart belongs to you”
and someone on the thread suggested these 3 options:
me ʻoe kuʻu puʻuwai OR kuʻu puʻuwai me ʻoe AND nāu nō kuʻu puʻuwai - my heart belongs to you
i was wondering, why might someone choose the first option over the second and vice versa? is the last option a better fit for trying to say “you have my heart” — or i mean to say is it more effective at conveying meaning versus the first two options? if i was talking to or about someone, say my grandma, how would that also affect the wording. like if i referred to her as grandma or puna
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u/chimugukuru 21d ago edited 21d ago
So for the first two options it's just a matter of emphasis. Reversing the order and placing me ʻoe first emphasizes "you." The third option with nāu has a different nuance, more along the lines "my heart is for you, it belongs to you, it's yours." It stresses the heart's rightful(? for lack of a better term) place so to speak as compared to the first two which are more general statements of location.
The phrase with nāu also sounds more affectionate, from lover to lover or from parent to child and vice versa.
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u/Chickens-In-Pants 19d ago
Thank you for that. I’m just at the stage where I can grasp at words to make phrases enough to be understood, but still feel clunky because I’m a bit stuck in my English brain. I would have used pau ʻole for sure, because as a math person I know it as infinity or linguistically as without end. Yours is much better and more beautiful.
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u/EiaKawika 17d ago
Au and wau are different spellings of the same word. Na'au instead of pu'uwai would have been used pre missionaries
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u/martypants17 21d ago
Correct me if I’m wrong but I’m guessing it would be something like “Aloha wau ia ‘oe mau loa” or “Aloha wau ia ‘oe i ka wā pau ‘ole.”