Disney's latest animated adventure , Moana , has already made a name for itself in a number of different ways. The film's animation is perhaps the most beautiful the studio has ever put out, the title character is the first Disney princess without much of a love interest, and the film's music is some of the greatest ever to come out of the House of Mouse. for many years. One song that received special attention was "We Know the Way," written by Mark Mancina, Lin Manuel Miranda and Opetaia Foa'i. But because of the Polynesian background, only half of the songs are in English. However, the translation of "We Know the Way" from "Moana" does fit this movie perfectly.
Exactly, it's hard to say. As far as I know, the non-English lyrics of the famous Moana song were written in Tokelauan. This is the native language of Te Vaka's lead singer/songwriter Foa'i, and most of their songs are sung in this language. The Tokelauans come from the small South Pacific island nation of Tokelau, a territory of New Zealand. According to Ethnologue, there are only about 3,000 speakers of the language in the world, which means it's basically impossible to find an online translator.
However, the language does share some similarities with other Polynesian languages in the region, especially Samoan and, to a lesser extent, Maori. By plugging the lyrics in both languages into Google Translate, one can get a good idea of what the song is about. Here are the lyrics in their original Tokelauan form:
Tatou o tagata folau e vala'auinaE le atua o le sami teleeo maia ava'e le lu'itau e leleiTapenapenaAue, aueNuku i muaTe manulele e tataki eAue, aueTe fenua, te mālieNae ko hakilia mo kaiga e
Now, here are the lyrics translated from Samoan:
We explorers invited the God of the Ocean to come and he took on the challenge of Ontario, etc., etc. Nuku first you bird tower base to wait. Nukulele, do you agree to the Fair Cohakilia for Keja to
Obviously, this is not a perfect translation. Here are the same lyrics translated from Maori:
We humans are traveling Vala'auina E le le sami of tele from that of months le lu'itau good Tapenapena the woe goes on the birds will lead the woe to the earth, interesting The Nae is the Hakilia of the family
Well, that doesn't help much either. However, if you put the two together, the song starts to make sense. The first stanza seems to be talking about explorers traveling with the help of Poseidon.
The second stanza seems to indicate that their journey will be aided by birds, the earth, and family. When you look at the English lyrics of the song, you'll notice that this seems to fit perfectly:
When the sun is high, we read the wind and the sky We ride the winds and sail the length of the ocean At night, we name every star We know where we are We know who we are, who we are Aue, aue We set Set a course to find a brand new island No matter where we roam, Aue, aue We keep our islands in our hearts When it comes time to find home, we know the way Aue, aue, we are explorers, read every A sign that we tell the stories of our elders in a never-ending chain Aue, aue
One word that gives me a lot of trouble is "aue," which is used throughout the song. In Samoan the word means "alas" and "wait", while in Maori it means "sorrow" and "howl" or "cry". If I had to guess, I'd say "las" probably makes the most sense in the context of this song.
Translating "We Know the Way" is no easy task, but the Tokelauan lyrics seem to display the same sense of adventure as the song's English lyrics.
