TRANSLATIONS

TRANSLATIONS

The following three pages (extending further from the link 'Mamari') were written with several unclear motives behind. The primary of them, though, was to try to establish a connection between 'feathered mauga' (e.g. Ca5-16), te pito (Ca5-20) and hura (Ca5-14):

Ca5-16 is therefore also a 'feathered mauga' glyph. The 'full moon' face is illustrated in Ca5-15, while in Ca5-17 a honu like a fire drill is depicted:


Ca5-13	Ca5-14	Ca5-15	Ca5-16	Ca5-17

Ca5-18	Ca5-19	Ca5-20	Ca5-21	Ca5-22

Takurua (winter solstice) follows in Ca5-18--19. We remember how another honu arrives immediately before a new month starts:

... In the Mamari calendar for the month there are 8 periods of different lengths. The last of the periods has only 2 nights ...


Ca8-27	Ca8-28	Ca8-29	Ca9-1	Ca9-2

Ca8-27 is a peculiar honu glyph with a long 'peg' at bottom and it presumably illustrates how at new moon a new fire is being alighted, possibly by fire drilling (which is not the usual Polynesian method to light fires). In Ca5-17 a similar honu ignites new sun fire in midwinter:


Ca5-17	Ca5-18	Ca5-19

The back-to-back persons (Ca8-28--29 respectively Ca5-18--19) are the old and new periods, i.e. the Janus concept - called Takurua in Polynesian ...

Then I realized how 'Janus' also must belong to the group, and Rei too of course.

The sequence of glyphs is important because it is of great help for understanding other texts.


Ca5-13	Ca5-14	Ca5-15	Ca5-16	Ca5-17

Ca5-18	Ca5-19	Ca5-20	Ca5-21	Ca5-22

Ca5-20 (with an ordinal number equal to the number of fingers and toes together - a sign of completeness) belongs to the glyph type named te pito by me. In Ca5-21 Rei 'kicks' the new season into action.

In Tahua a similar te pito glyph is Ab8-43, with Ab8-16 illustrating mauga and a closed 'fist' (darkness). Tara in Ab8-69 comes symmetrically located after te pito:

	14		25			25		14
Ab8-1		Ab8-16		Ab8-42	Ab8-43		Ab8-69		Ab8-84
42 = 16 + 26					42 = 26 + 16

Then, looking for further clues in Tahua I felt it necessary to document this internal parallel with 'feathered mauga' glyphs:

We must take the opportunity to continue with the glyphs surrounding (the dark) mauga in Ab8-16:


Ab8-13	Ab8-14	Ab8-15	Ab8-16	Ab8-17	Ab8-18

Ab8-19	Ab8-20	Ab8-21	Ab8-22

In Ab8-17--18 'feathers' have appeared. A similar sequence of events is depicted in an internal parallel on side a (with glyphs having corresponding ordinal numbers after 60 has been subtracted):


Aa5-74	Aa5-75	Aa5-76	Aa5-77	Aa5-78

Aa5-79	Aa5-80	Aa5-81

Metoro said te goe (the Milky Way) at Aa5-77 (e kua moe te goe e hiko), and - we should remember - he also said moe te goe immediately before what probably refers to summer solstice (at vaha mea in Aa6-67):


Aa6-64	Aa6-65	Aa6-66	Aa6-67	Aa6-68	Aa6-69	Aa6-70

The 'nose' of mago (Aa6-70) has 'feathers', an allusion to the 'feathered mauga'. We leave the interpretation of Ab8-13--22 and Aa5-74--81 until later when we will be better prepared for the task. The main point is that winter solstice probably is the subject in Ab8-16--18.

Hiko means to hide (as e.g. in hikohiko keke, hide-and-seek). At Ab8-15--16 Metoro said hakaoa i to heke, a curious expression which possibly means 'to finish the octopus'.

I did not include these three pages in the glyph dictionary, but here they are.

The reason for having a link to Mamari remains, though, because the first of the pages (which is included in the glyph dictionary) informs about how the mauga glyph type in the glyph catalogue includes other glyph types with 'feathers' on both sides. In the glyph dictionary it will be necessary to separate normal 'feathered mauga' from such 'feathered boughs' as Ca6-16 and such glyphs as Aa6-70:


Ba8-40	Ca5-16	Aa6-70

The complex problem which must be solved is to determine if te pito occurs only once in the year or if it comes at the demise of both half years, and if hura occurs only once in the year or if it comes towards the end of both half years.

Hura is an unusual glyph type, but in Tahua we have established its existence by way of a parallel in R (Small Washington Tablet), a text which really seems to be parallel in structure with the Tahua text. Aa6-55 arrives as the 9th glyph in the table below (with 5 * 6 = 30 glyphs) and as number 20 we have the important 'goe'-glyph Aa6-66, beyond which (presumably) the 2nd half year will begin:


Aa6-47	Aa6-48	Aa6-49	Aa6-50	Aa6-51

Aa6-52	Aa6-53	Aa6-54	Aa6-55	Aa6-56

Aa6-57	Aa6-58	Aa6-59	Aa6-60	Aa6-61

Aa6-62	Aa6-63	Aa6-64	Aa6-65	Aa6-66

Aa6-67	Aa6-68	Aa6-69	Aa6-70	Aa6-71

Aa6-72	Aa6-73	Aa6-74	Aa6-75	Aa6-76

Aa6-71 looks similar to an inversion of the fundamental glyph type which in Ca4-13 and Ca4-20 is adorned with 'feathers':


Ca4-13	Ca4-14	Ca4-15	Ca4-16	Ca4-17	Ca4-18	Ca4-19	Ca4-20

In R there may be one destroyed glyph (at the beginning of line Ra3) and the glyphs have in general very little in common with those in Tahua.

Ra1-203 indicates the dark time lies ahead, with the 'sails' in Ra2-14 and in Ra3-116 agreeing (at left here means the lightest time is in the past). The overall structure may be parallel to that in Tahua, but the messages seem to be quite different:


Ra1-203	Ra2-1	Ra2-2	Ra2-3	Ra2-4

Ra2-5	Ra2-6	Ra2-7	Ra2-8	Ra2-9

Ra2-10	Ra2-11	Ra2-12	Ra2-13	Ra2-14

Ra2-15	Ra2-16	Ra2-17	Ra2-18	Ra2-19

Ra2-20	Ra2-21	Ra2-22	Ra2-23	Ra2-24

Ra3-101	Ra3-102	Ra3-103	Ra3-104	Ra3-105

Ra3-106	Ra3-107	Ra3-108	Ra3-109	Ra3-110

Ra3-111	Ra3-112	Ra3-113	Ra3-114	Ra3-115

Ra3-116	Ra3-117	Ra3-118	Ra3-119	Ra3-120

Ra3-121	Ra3-122	Ra3-123	Ra3-124	Ra3-125

Presumably Ra3-103 refers to winter solstice and Aa6-55 to summer solstice. Possibly hura belongs to both the end of the 1st and the 2nd half years.

In H hura evidently refers to the dark time of the year:


Hb11-47	Hb11-48	Hb11-49	Hb11-50	Hb11-51

Hb11-52	Hb11-53	Hb12-1	Hb12-2	Hb12-3

Given that hura (with 4 'balls') appears in 'winter', we can suggest hura comes before new year, while te pito (as drawn in Ca5-20) indeed may mean the 'birth point' of the new year:


Ca5-13	Ca5-14	Ca5-15	Ca5-16	Ca5-17

Ca5-18	Ca5-19	Ca5-20	Ca5-21	Ca5-22

The conjunction between male and female needed to ensure a birth presumably is illustrated in Ra3-105. The same event is probably illustrated in another way in Ca5-15:


Ca5-14	Ca5-15

Ra3-103	Ra3-104	Ra3-105

In H the conjunction possibly is depicted in Hb12-1, in which case there is a parallel between Hb12-2 and Ra3-106:


Hb11-50	Hb11-51	Hb11-52	Hb11-53	Hb12-1	Hb12-2	Hb12-3
	-		-
Ra3-103	-	Ra3-104	-	Ra3-105	Ra3-106	Ra3-107
	-				-
Ca5-14	-			Ca5-15	-	Ca5-16

The 'recycling station' (Hb12-3) is the end station for the old season, but also the place from which next generation will be born (when the glyph has been turned upside down).

In Ra3-107 the opening is downwards and a new 'person' seems to be waiting for his entrance into our world in the light (no 'eyes' yet). The 'feathered mauga' (Ca5-16) will then also be the 'pregnant person'.

The 'feathered mauga' in Aa8-31 will from this perspective correspond to the 'pregnant person' in Ca5-16 (and in Ra3-107):


Aa8-26	Aa8-27	Aa8-28	Aa8-29

Aa8-30	Aa8-31	Aa8-32	Aa8-33

As for the 'pregnant person' in H she maybe is described in Hb12-3--5:


Hb12-1	Hb12-2	Hb12-3	Hb12-4	Hb12-5

The rising 'fish' in Hb12-4 is still in the dark (dark lines across) and in Hb12-5 (with 6 'feathers') there may be a description of the birth canal. Possibly the 5 glyphs Hb12-1--5 refer to the 5 dark nights at the end of the regular year.

The conjunction may be described both in Aa8-30 and in Aa8-31 - notice how similar they are in structure.

In Aa8-30 the 'fist' with 'flames' around evidently corresponds to the 'head of the sun bird' in Ca5-15. The result is seen in Aa8-31, a 'pregnant person' drawn as a 'feathered mauga'. The 'baby' is still inside, but there are 'feathers' (6 in number) telling of the 'child'.

Unrestrained imagination can roam far.