Read by the tongue
Including essays filed under Hawaiian (ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi).
He lawaiʻa no ke kai hohonu, he loa ke aho
he lawaiʻa no ke kai hohonu, he loa ke aho
A Hawaiian fishing proverb measures your reach by the length of line you bring — and Mandarin, Russian, and English cousins set the same truth against danger, toil, and the climb.
He aliʻi ka ʻāina, he kauwā ke kanaka
he aliʻi ka ʻāina, he kauwā ke kanaka
Why Hawaiians call the land a chief and the human its servant — and how Māori, West African, and Hebrew sayings invert the ownership of the ground from three other directions.
I ka ʻōlelo nō ke ola, i ka ʻōlelo nō ka make
i ka ʻōlelo nō ke ola, i ka ʻōlelo nō ka make
A Hawaiian saying makes speech the literal seat of life and death — and reading it beside Hebrew, Arabic, and Māori shows how differently four oral worlds weighed the spoken word.
ʻAʻohe pau ka ʻike i ka hālau hoʻokahi.
ah-oh-heh pau ka ee-keh ee ka hah-lau ho-oh-ka-hee
A Hawaiian proverb refuses to let any one school own all knowledge. Confucius, an Akan baobab, and a Japanese saying about the shame of asking agree — but each finds a different reason to look elsewhere.