Sidi Mara

It seems that the origin for the melody of ALOHA OE (Farewell to Thee), famous Hawaiian song and the national anthem of Hawaii, may be inspired by a Croatian song from region of Srijem called Sidi Mara na kamen studencu. Song's words were written by Her Majesty Queen Liliuokalani around 1877. Croatian origin for the melody is indicated in an article written by John Berger in HAWAII MAGAZINE in August 1996, p. 41. Very close relation between the melody of "Sidi Mara..." and ALOHA OE has been indicated by Branimir Vidmar in 1978. Its melody is close to the American gospel song "How Great Thou Art," composed by K. Hine.

It is worth noting that Sidi Mara na kamen studencu has Austro-German version called Die Träne, also the English version "The Tear". As stated in Ripley's Believe it or not, Hawaiian music is the creation of a German bandmaister captain Henry Berger (1844-1929). He was invited to Hawaii by the king Kamehameha V in 1872. Berger composed the first Hawaiian songs which was adapted from German folk tunes. Berger composed 72 Hawaiian songs, including ALOHA OE and the Hawaiian national song. We can be pretty sure that the "German tune" adapted to Hawaiian ALOHA OE was in fact Croatian song "Sidi Mara...", which Berger obviously knew as "Die Träne."

Traditional Croatian song from Srijem

Em Am B71. Sidi Mara na kamen studencu,

Am6 B7 Em svoju tajnu otkrila je vincu. G C G0 G Suzama ga orosila Mara,

G C G D7 G | 2x sudbinu je svoju oplakala.
2. Maro, Maro, od bisera grano,

Maro, Maro, sunce ogrijano. Lipcca si od biloga goluba, poddi za me i budi mi ljuba.3. Od lozice mladog vinograda,

Lipa Maro, pravi'chu ti lada. Nosi'chu te na rukama dvima, jer od mene boljeg momka nima.4. Ssto che meni i srebro i zlato,

kad ja nimam ssto je srcu drago. Imala sam svoga zaruccnika, bio mi je i ponos i dika.vincu = vijencu, vinac = vijenac (here "vinac" is a nice crown which brides wear on their head)

This very old and popular Croatian song was originally sung in Ikavian dialect. Here we present its version from the city of Subotica, as the Bunjevci Croats used to sing until the middle of 20th century.