Other Extinction Reb songs - Kiwi songs - Home

1937 Johnny Cash was a little boy on a farm in the Mississippi delta during the great flood of 1937. He wrote this song 25 years later.

2019 Auckland student Ielemia Tagiga updated the words of Johnny Cash's song to keep in mind how the sea waters were rising around his home village on an atoll in the mid-Pacific, and how all his relatives would eventually have to abandon it forever.

A How high's the vai, tinana?                                  Two feet high and rising How high's the vai, tamana? She said it's two feet high and rising Last night the tai nearly came within A7 reach             tai = tide We've D vai māi to drink and don't have much each  = wai māī = brackish water We'll have to E shift our puaka higher up the beach     puaka = poaka = porker Two feet high and A rising       C C How high's the vai, tinana? Three feet high and rising How high's the vai, tamana? She said it's three feet high and rising Galutafi are coming right over the C7 a’au            galu-tafi = ngaru-tawhi = surging waves The F pigpen is flooded in every storm now                 a'au = ākau = reef And our G7 breadfruit tree is losing its lau,             lau = rau = leaves Three feet high and C rising        D D How high's the vai, tinana? Four feet high and rising How high's the vai, tamana? She said it's four feet high and rising                                                                            palagi = pakeha = Westerners Well, those palagi rulers never heard our pleas Our puaka is in vai G up past his knees, And A7 fish are swimming round our niu trees     It's four feet high and D rising     E E How high's the vai, tinana? Five feet high and rising How high's the vai, tamanā? She said it's five feet high and rising Our motu is flooded, our puaka has E7 drowned When the A navy gets here, we’re New Zealan' bound And we're B7 never coming back, 'cause it’s never goin’ down, Five feet high and E rising. Well - it's - B7 - five - feet - high - and - E rising

  Other Extinction Reb songs - Kiwi songs - Home

Published on Folksong.org.nz in October 2019