Manuela Boy - Notes on the Lyrics
Source: Manuela Boy by Hilo Hattie (Kalala Haili) and the Royal Hawaiian Girls Glee Club (1937), with a couple of additions from other sources (described below). Additional lyrics are found frequently.
Classic slack-key Hawaiian guitar song about the family life of a young man who finds himself penniless, hungry, and homeless. One chorus says “No more five cent (penniless), no more rice (hungry), go ala paka hiamoe (go to the park to sleep).”
Lyrics:
Papa work for the stevedore (dock worker)
Mama make the lei (welcome garlands, still draped over every customer at Hilo
Hattie stores)
Sister go with a haole boy (white foreigner)
Brother go 'auana (a drifter or vagabond).
Chorus:
A-Manuel a-boy, my dear boy
You no more hila-hila (embarrassment or shame)
No more five cent (penniless), no more house (homeless)
You go A'ala Park a-hiamoe (sleep outside in A'ala Park, Honolulu, a hangout for the destitute) [located at 280 N King Street; dates from early 1900s]
Grandpa work in a taro patch (traditional Hawaiian food staple)
Grandma mix the poi (paste made from the taro root) [Another source: "Hawaiian
staff of life food"]
Sister go with a malahini boy (newcomer to the islands)
Brother go 'auana. Chorus.
Uncle is a big maka'i ('big shot')
Down by the old fish market
Auntie selling good alamihi (Hawaiian black rock crabs)
Oh, a-ha ha ha, a-hahaha! Chorus.
Papa come home, see mama
Mama drinking 'oke' (okolehao, home-made potent alcoholic spirits)
Papa burn up (angry) with mama
He give mama black eye! Chorus.
Editor's Note:
There are numerous other verses that have been added over the years. At least one described the father as a "Makai" - a policeman. "Manuela" is a Portuguese man's name.
Additional notes from the World Wide Web and a piece of sheet music from EMI Music / Warner Brothers (copyright 1938, 1946, renewed 1966, 1974).
Additional sources: