Liliuokalani, the last monarch of Hawaii, was born on September 2, 1838, as Lydia Lili‘u Loloku Walania Wewehi Kamaka‘eha. She studied music from a young age, learned to sing and play several instruments, and would eventually write more than 160 songs, mostly about Hawaiian life and culture. The most popular is Aloha Oe, the story of two lovers parting reluctantly.She became Queen in 1890 following the death of her brother Kalakaua. He had been forced by powerful business interests from the mainland to accept a new constitution that greatly reduced his power and effectively disenfranchised the native Hawaiians. Liliuokalani attempted to replace that constitution with another, fairer one, but instead, in a shocking coup, a group of businessmen, assisted by US Marines not acting under orders from Washington, forced her at gunpoint to surrender her country into the "protection" of the United States.
Later, she was placed under arrest for allegedly taking part in a plot to regain power. During her imprisonment, she wrote ’O kou aloha nö (The Lord's Mercy), commonly known as The Queen's Prayer, which has since been sung as a hymn.
’O kou aloha nö
Aia I ka lani,
A ’o kou oiä’i’o,
He hemolele ho’i.
Ko’u noho mihi’ana
A pa’ahao ’ia,
O’oe ku’u lama,
Kou nani, ko’u ko’o.
Mai nänä ’ino’ino
Nä hewa o känaka,
Akä, e huikala
A ma’ema’e nö.
No laila e ka Haku,
Ma lalo o kou ’ëheu
Kö makou maluhis
A mau loa aku nö.
Queen Liliuokalani, 1895
Tune: THE QUEEN'S PRAYER (6.7.8.6.)
Queen Liliuokalani, 1895
I don't believe that there has been a translation into English that preserves the original meter, but this is the meaning:
Your loving mercy
Is as high as heaven
And your truth
So perfect.
I live in sorrow,
Imprisoned,
You are my light,
Your glory, my support.
Behold not with malevolence
The sins of humankind,
But forgive
And cleanse.
And so, O God
Protect us beneath your wings,
And let peace be our portion
Now and forever more.
Following her death in 1917, her bequest to benefit orphan and destitute children established the Queen Liliuokalani Children's Center, which is still in existence. Not until 1993 did the US Congress finally issue a formal apology to the native people of Hawaii for the overthrow of their lawful government one hundred years earlier.
