ʻŌlelo Noʻeau are Hawaiian proverbs that often offer wisdom for a person to live by. The ones chosen are intended to apply particularly to your learning of the Hawaiian language in hopes to keep up your motivation.
Once you know the vocab, this month's proverb is actually pretty simple! Still, I'll provide a breakdown for your understanding.
- E + [verb] forms the Hawaiian Imperative (i.e. a command)
- kaupē = a verb meaning specifically to put a paddle forward, used with the Directional aku implying the meaning "away"
- nō is an emphatic marker. In other words, you can translate this to mean "really." Here, it emphasizes the action of putting the paddle forward, as in, "give it all you got!"
- hoe = Paddle
- a = And (between two parts of a sentence)
- kō = To drag, tow; It can also mean "To complete, carry out, succeed," which might be a poetic secondary meaning to this expression
- mai = a Directional meaning "toward" (opposite of aku)
All together:
(Really) Put the paddle forward (away from you) and drag it (right) back/succeed.
*The online dictionary wehewehe.org also offers a more complete phrase: "E kaupē aku nō i ka hoe, e kō mai i ka hoe, o hoe! = Put forward the paddle, draw the paddle toward you, paddle!" This one repeats the Direct Object "i ka hoe," and also adds the additional command "o hoe!" urging you to keeping paddling, or keep at it!