The first one encounters when reading The Whirlpool, a chapter in Hamlet's Mill, is: "Tre volte il fe' girar con tutte l'acque // alla quarta voltar la poppa in suso // e la prora ire in giu, com'altrui piacque // Infin che'l mar fu sopra noi richiuso." (DANTE, Inferno.) My Italian is poor, but I could understand that 3 times (tre volte) are mentioned at the begining. Something turned (fe' girar) 3 times, and water (acque) was involved. Then, in the 4th round (alla quarta voltar), something occurred, but I did not grasp what. At pure I suggested that the metamorphoses in the life cycle of a butterfly (egg, caterpillar, pupa, and imago) were used to illustrate the changes over a year, and I quoted from English Etymology in order to get some perspective on 'pupa', the station before the buttery finally can can rise towards the sky:
The unknown meaning of Italian la poppa made me imagine it had something to do with a doll. In the center of an eye the black pupil will reflect a picture of the viewer, like a little doll, an image of himself. ... And then the bone spoke; it was there in the fork of the tree: Why do you want a mere bone, a round thing in the branches of a tree? said the head of One Hunaphu when it spoke to the maiden. You don't want it, she was told. I do want it, said the maiden. Very well. Stretch out your right hand here, so I can see it, said the bone. Yes, said the maiden. She stretched out her right hand, up there in front of the bone. And then the bone spit out its saliva, which landed squarely in the hand of the maiden. And then she looked in her hand, she inspected it right away, but the bone's saliva wasn't in her hand. It is just a sign I have given you, my saliva, my spittle. This, my head, has nothing on it - just bone, nothing of meat. It's just the same with the head of a great lord: it's just the flesh that makes his face look good. And when he dies, people get frightened by his bones. After that, his son is like his saliva, his spittle, in his being, whether it be the son of a lord or the son of a craftsman, an orator. The father does not disappear, but goes on being fulfilled. Neither dimmed nor destroyed is the face of a lord, a warrior, craftsman, an orator. Rather, he will leave his daughters and sons. So it is that I have done likewise through you ... We can also consider the meaning of pupil - the one who follows in your footsteps. English Etymology: pupil1 ... orphan who is minor and hence a ward ... one under instruction ... L. pūpillus, -illa orphan, ward ... of pūpus boy, pūpa girl ... pupil2 ... circular opening in the iris of the eye ... L. pūpilla ... secondary dim. of pūpa, girl, doll, pupil of the eye ... The application of the L. words to the pupil of the eye is based on, or parallel to, that of Gr. kórē maiden, girl, doll, pupil (the allusion being to the tiny images of persons and things that may be seen therein) ... Furthermore, one of the meanings of va'e (often equal to leg), is pupil. Reading on a translation into English is given: Dante kept to the tradition of the whirlpool as a significant end for great figures, even if here it comes ordained by Providence. Ulysses has sailed in his 'mad venture' beyond the limits of the world, and once he has crossed the ocean he sees a mountain looming far away, 'hazy with the distance, and so high I had never seen any.' It is the Mount of Purgatory, forbidden to mortals. 'We rejoiced, and soon it turned to tears, for from the new land a whirl was born, which smote our ship from the side. Three times it caused it to revolve with all the waters, on the forth to lift is stern on high, and the prow to go down, as Someone willed, until the sea had closed over us.' The 'many thoughted' Ulysses is on his way to immortality, even if it has to be Hell. The engulfing whirlpool belongs to the stock-in-trade of ancient fable. It appears in the Odyssey as Charybdis in the straits of Messina - and again, in other cultures, in the Indian Ocean and in the Pacific. It is found there too, curiously enough, with the overhanging fig tree to whose boughs the hero can cling as the ship goes down, whether it be Satyavrata in India, or Kae in Tonga. 3 quarters in the light and 1 in darkness, I thought. The process of regeneration cannot be seen, a dark cloth hides it (like the sea water which folds over your head when you sink). A canoe going down with prow first was also how the Mayans saw it. And only the stern of Argo is depicted in the sky. The prow of a ship comes first and the stern at the end (mua respectively muri). The end must be the last part seen, and the 4th hidden stage comes beyond mua, roto, and muri. The 4th hidden stage is not of this world. In the 29th night of the moon she is hidden in order to be regenerated. I have argued at hoea for Roto Iri Are to be a corresponding kuhane station. The day numbers should be raised by 1, though, because also Gb8-30 must be counted, and then we will find day number 383 at Gb5-29:
The reversed hau tea at Gb5-1 shows how the last light has disappeared with the end of Hatinga Te Kohe (12 * 29.5 = 354). The sky roof has fallen down when the supporting pillar broke. At left in Gb6-1 is a tail formed like the waxing moon. Moon has been revitalized, while the head and front member of the bird in the preceding Gb5-29 are invisible. Tagata in Gb6-2 possibly indicates the 31th day from the onset of the 'dark cloth' (or the disappearance of the 'great ship' below the surface of the water). The end of the solar year (by whatever measure used) lies in Roto Iri Are. But at right in the central hua sign in Gb5-3 there are 3 feathers of fire (5), maybe illustrating the coming new sun (son) - beyond the mountains (mauga) in Gb5-4 and Gb5-28. As to la poppa, English Etymology has the answer once again: Poop ... stern of a ship ... It. poppa ... for L. puppis, stern. |
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