TRANSLATIONS

TRANSLATIONS

There are no good standard vaha mea glyphs in the K text (and neither are there any in Tahua). By a lucky coincidence, however, we can anyhow get valuable information from K:


Ka1-3		Ka1-4	Ka1-5	Ka1-6

Ga1-3	Ga1-4	Ga1-5	Ga1-6

From Metoro's standard phrase tapa mea ('red cloth') for the glyph type below, it follows that vaha mea in Ga1-4 very well can mean 'red opening' - the parallel Ka1-3 exhibits the same 'feather marks':

Metoro has here helped us to understand not only that 'feather marks' towards right mean 'mea', but also - and more important for the present investigation - that the glyph type vaha mea probably indeed implies red.

The open ends in the henua (in Ka1-3) indicate 'in the dark', 'ghostly' or similar. In Ga1-3, on the other hand, another sign is used, viz. a reversed bent henua - with about the same meaning of 'not in the light', 'obscure', 'occult'.

The triplet of feathers at the top half of the standard tapa mea glyph may indicate the same feathers as in Ka1-3 and on the head of ariki in Ga1-5. Possibly these feathers can be identified with the three fingers in the kai gesture. If so, then they presumably indicate the growing season. The red opening stands at the beginning of the growing season.

A possibly weak point in the glyph dictionary text is the negatively bent henua in G - where are the positively bent ones? Shouldn't they arrive in parallel with those in K, i.e. functioning as marks for beginning and end of summer? When comparing the bent henua in G with those in K a pattern emerges:


Ga1-3	Ga1-7	Ga1-9	Ga1-10	Ga6-2	Gb7-24

Ga4-6	Ga8-8	Ga8-11	Gb8-2	Gb8-13


Ka1-7	Ka2-7	Ka2-8	Ka4-15	Kb2-110

Ka5-12	Kb1-6	Kb3-8	Kb4-5

The redmarked glyphs mark summer in K (or - as regards Ka1-7, Ka2-7--8 - possibly the emerging daylight), while in G the positively bent henua arrive at the opposite end of the text. Instead, the blackmarked (negatively bent) henua arrive before the redmarked (postively bent) ones.

I suspect the texts are out of phase with each other, in which case there are risks involved when comparing parallel texts. The same kind of out of phase phenomenon characterizes e.g. the parallel texts of H, P, and Q. The problem cannot be approached until much later, though, at a time when we, hopefully, can definitely establish the meanings of each of the texts.

Instead we advance to the next glyph dictionary page:

There is evidence to contemplate at the beginning of the Large Washington Tablet text:


Sa1-101	Sa1-102	Sa1-103	Sa1-104	Sa1-201	Sa1-202
*Sa1-1	*Sa1-2	*Sa1-3	*Sa1-4	*Sa1-5	*Sa1-6

The first 4 glyphs are drawn as if they were located in mist. Barthel did not see them at all according to his picture of the glyph line, while Fischer saw only the upper halves of them. From Sa1-201 vision has cleared, light has dawned: vaha mea + tapa mea, no doubt at all about it.

In spite of the glyph numbers - by my system suggesting glyphs missing at e.g. the beginning of the line - very probably there never were any glyphs before Sa1-101 (nor between Sa1-104 and Sa1-201). All glyphs in line a1 are intact.

In the 'thumb' of Sa1-102 we recognize the peculiar upside down ragi at right in Ka1-1:


Ka1-1	Ka1-2	Ka1-3	Ka1-4	Ka1-5	Ka1-6

Ka1-3 may tell about the same events as those described in Sa1-103--201, because in the parallel of G (we have seen) vaha mea is included.

We can imagine how at the very beginning of time vaha mea dispersed the fog. There are 4 'foggy' glyphs before light dawns at Ka1-5. There are 4 'foggy' glyphs at the beginning according to both the K and the S texts.

Ka1-5 is a glyph type which should be close in meaning to vaha mea - we can see the open 'mouth' between the thumb and the other fingers, which makes us remember Ea9-25--26:


Ea9-25	Ea9-26

A great open 'mouth' characterizes also tara glyphs, and in Ea9-25 there is a gap between the thumb and the other fingers. An open mouth attached to a bent tail (as in tara) surely comes before the tail is straight again - when things will be straight and running smoothly, the sun will be shining, the birds singing, and all be well and in order.

In Ea9-26 there is no tail, surely a sign. I think it means that at the beginning of time there was no 'tail' (no earlier course of the sun canoe for instance). At the beginning of time there was no before.

And according to Ka1-5 the light was self-igniting - the eating gesture emanates from the 'fire arm' itself. We recognize the 'fire' in Ka3-13--14, but then it was coming from 'before' (Ka3-11--12):


Ka3-7	Ka3-8	Ka3-9	Ka3-10	Ka3-11	Ka3-12	Ka3-13	Ka3-14