WEBVTT

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It's called, the first
section is called, Climbing.

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And each section
has a name, which

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is the first word of
the first line, which

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is the way, of
course, as you know,

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Hawaiian chants are set up.

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The last line, the
last word is very often

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the first line, first
word of the next stanza,

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and it's the way the
stanza is announced.

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So the title of the first
section is Climbing.

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It's her name.

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Her name means Pi'ilani.

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Pi'ilani means climbing heaven.

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And it begins with her,
and it ends with her.

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Climbing in the dark,

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she felt the small stones

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turn along the
spine of the path,

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whose color kept rising

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in her mind.

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Burned in color, moment of rust,

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dried blood color, other color,

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gone color by day.

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And she knew what
color was there

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when she could not see it.

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And when one of the stars

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was the darkness before
any breath of daylight,

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and the way was
in her feet again,

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the star of Kao'ea
rushed between clouds

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when the dawn wind
came toward her

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down across the ridges
of the mountain,

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carrying the scent of water

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from the peak of Wai'ale'ale.

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At a high twist of the trail,

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far down to the left,

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behind her over the
naked roots of the slope

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and the widening
hollow of Wai'aka,

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where the folds of the mountain

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were still touched by the moon,

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she saw the sea outside

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the curve of coast,

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glinting past Waimea,

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beyond the dark land
and the hidden houses.

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In one of them her father
was invisible in sleep.

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And past there, the
sea outside Kekaha,

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where she had been born,

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on the shore of O'omanu,

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all of it barely a shadow

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from which she had set out

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and nobody had heard her go.

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Even the dogs in the moonlight

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never barked when she went past,

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looked up and watched,

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and never barked,
knowing who she was.

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And with the next step,

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that whole horizon was gone

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behind the mountain.

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The blackness beginning
to the right of her

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was the chasm of Waimea.

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The air running
from the edge of it

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rustled the finer
leaves of the koas.

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Above her the voices
of the plovers

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stitched the night.

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She knew the way now
as something of hers,

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a sound of her name.

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It had been hers
from the beginning,

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waiting for her, when
she woke into the world

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on the coast at Kekaha,

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her night name from
before anyone had seen her

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and from before
that, always hers

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but more of her
had answered to it

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after she had tasted

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what she would not taste again,

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infancy, when the
belly turns up,

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and the echo of
the waves rocks it.

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And then childhood,
the naked rapids.

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then the petal pleasure
of everyone's eyes on her,

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telling her how
beautiful she had become,

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how beautiful she was.

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And then her watching
him differently,

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whom she had known for as long

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as she could remember,

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since they had been
children there,

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running on that same sand.

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And then the feeling
of him watching her

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and the time he
first came to her,

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and all their
early age together,

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the house they lived
in after the wedding

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when she had heard
his full name,

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as though she had
never known it,

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although everyone knew it.

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And when she heard it that time,

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a cold finger touched her

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at the top of her forehead

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and ran down the front of her

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over her face and her breast,

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to her navel and below.

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And she had shivered

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and heard nothing for a moment.

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Until the voice of
Reverend Rowell,

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who had taught them
both to read and write

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turned to her and said her name,

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Pi'ilani, and asked her
the lifelong question.

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When she had gone up that trail

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for the first time,
they had been together,

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all of them on horses.

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Ko'olau her husband

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ahead of her in the dark,

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and Kua his friend and elder

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riding ahead of him.

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Kua Papiohuli,

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who had taught Ko'olau
from the beginning,

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always an eye on him,

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throwing the fishnet,

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holding the spear, the paddle,

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taught him the
currents on the surface

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and the ones below,
who they were,

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where they came from,
what things they had done,

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what it was best to expect
from them, in what order,

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as the hours turned in the sky.

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And Kua taught him
the touch with horses,

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so that even as a boy,
Ko'olau was famous

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for his way with horses.

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And Kua taught him the
braiding of leather,

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the life of a sinew,
the spring of a lariat,

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and taught him to use the lariat

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so that it seemed to rise
out of his hand by itself

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and fly wherever
he willed it to go

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and drop there like
a tern fishing.

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Kua taught him the
tracks on the ridges

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and the gun, the
handling of the gun.

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And Ko'olau, they would
say, never misses.

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He never misses.

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