Puakea Nogelmeier was 18 and on his way to Japan when he stopped in Hawaii “for a weekend.” He never left. Nogelmeier immersed himself in hula and chant, then in the Hawaiian language, which he studied with old Hawaiian native-speakers and also at Leeward Community College. Nogelmeier is currrently a tenured full professor of Hawaiian language at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Nogelmeier has shared his knowledge of the language, teaching a reknowned 400-level Hawaiian poetry class at UH. He also helped establish the Awaiaulu: Hawaiian Literature Project to foster knowledge of the Hawaiian language, and founded the ‘Ike Ku‘oko‘a Initiative, which is making more than 125,000 pages of Hawaiian-language newspapers available online. He has received eight Na Hoku Hanohano Awards for his work as a songwriter and liner notes annotator.

Nogelmeier, 64, will talk about two of his most recent projects — translating the letters of Hawaii’s alii into English, and dubbing Disney’s “Moana” into Hawaiian — on May 6 at the 2018 Hawaii Book and Music Festival.

JOHN BERGER: What is the alii letters project?

PUAKEA NOGELMEIER: It’s a project with Awaiaulu and Hawaiian Mission Houses comprised of 300 letters from the alii to the missionaries that span half a century. I did it as a training program for three interns who worked with me through every letter translating and annotating them.

The letters are now up on the Hawaiian Mission Houses website.

JB: “Moana” is the first Disney feature to be dubbed into Hawaiian. Where are you with that?

PN: We translated the script and songs (into Hawaiian) in a little less than five months (last year), worked with the actors and music people through the whole recording and dubbing of the film, and finished up sometime in March. We’re just tweaking the very last details on the credits.

JB: What makes learning how to write Hawaiian poetry such a challenge — even for people who can speak basic Hawaiian?

PN: If you just look up “beauty” you get five words, maybe 10.

I would make my students read every word in the Hawaiian side of the dictionary, and then read every word in the Hawaiian side of the 1865 Lorrin Andrews dictionary, and make a collection of words, because if you go line by line and read every one that relates to beauty you’ll get 400.

That’s the vocabulary you want to play with.

JB: Where are you with the Hawaiian newspaper project?

PN: Two-fifths of the 125,000 pages are on the web and word searchable at least on a rudimentary basis.

JB: What’s your next big project?

PN: I’m retiring June 1 from the university and taking on Awaiaulu full time. I’ve always done it part time but now they’ll get all of my time.

“On the Scene” appears on Sundays in the Star-Advertiser. Reach John Berger at jberger@staradvertiser.com.