BOOK MARK
Journal runs translations of historical Hawaiian papers

KA HO'OILINA The Legacy, Puke Pai 'Olelo Hawai'i, Journal of Hawaiian Language Sources, Vol. 1, Issues 1 and 2; Kamehameha Schools Press, paper, $25 each

By Wanda Adams
Advertiser Books Editor

Kamehameha Schools Press has released the first two volumes of what will be a remarkable resource: translated materials ranging from private papers, including Mary Kawena Pukui's compilation of Hawaiian ethnological notes from the Bishop Museum, to Hawaiian-language newspapers, government documents, chants, stories and other literature.

Many people don't realize that there are hundreds of pieces of untranslated material in existence that would be helpful to historians, kumu hula, language students, genealogists and others but are inaccessible because so few of us speak or read Hawaiian. The Hawaiian Language Legacy Program is working to make some of these materials available. In these journals, each article is presented in four formats: the original Hawaiian, modern Hawaiian (with diacriticals), English and a fourth column of footnotes.

The first volume illustrates the breadth of the subject matter, ranging from agricultural practices (cultivating wetlands, including chants to seek Kane's blessings), to the 1840 constitution of Hawai'i, to a life of one of the last kings of O'ahu, Kahahana.

To subscribe to the journal (two issues a year for $40), go to www.uhpress.hawaii.edu/journals/kh/ (click on ordering information).