TRANSLATIONS

TRANSLATIONS

Side a of Mamari seems to be a promising place to begin our investigation of what tagata rere might mean:


Ca2-11	Ca6-26	Ca7-9	Ca7-18	Ca7-26

Ca8-5	Ca8-12	Ca8-23	Ca8-25	Ca12-12

The 8 blue glyphs are representatives of the 8 periods in the moon calendar, while Ca2-11 and Ca12-12 appear to be connected with the sun. 2 * 11 = 22 suggests a cycle has reached its end, presumably at midsummer, and 12 * 12 = 144 that the square of the sun is completed.

In Ca12-12 the head is en face, probably a sign borrowed from tagata, and therefore it could mean 'fully grown'. The hetuu sign at right emerges from a string connected to the upraised arm which is formed as a sign of the moon. We can compare with the upraised arms at the beginning of the daytime calendar in A and also with the sign at right in Ka2-20:


Ka2-16	Ka2-17	Ka2-18	Ka2-19	Ka2-20	Ka2-21	Ka2-22

The colours of my chart paints Ca12-12 red (as the Sun), while Ca2-11 becomes black (as Saturn):


Ca2-11	Ca12-12

Ca12-12 is pregnant and the sideways sitting down person could be the Moon.

If Ca2-11 would have been positioned at the beginning of light, then the sitting down person ought to be Venus. With a position at midsummer it should be Mercury, and the vai sign in front could then refer to the season when Sun is absent - the season which apparently is ruled by Saturn (during a cube of 125 days). Mercury cannot become pregnant.

These preliminary speculations will now be tested against such facts as the surrounding glyphs and the orders of number from the larger pictures of the text. See the pages which are reached by these links - Ca2-11 respectively Ca12-12.

The beginning of the pages at 'Ca2-11':

Side a of Mamari is beginning with 18 glyphs, a number equal to that at the beginning of side a of Tahua.

Then follows - where in Tahua a description of the quarters intertwine with the beginning of the calendar of daylight - 8 glyphs up to the end of line Ca1:


Ca1-19	Ca1-20	Ca1-21	Ca1-22

Ca1-23	Ca1-24	Ca1-25	Ca1-26


Aa1-19	Aa1-20	Aa1-21	Aa1-22

Aa1-23	Aa1-24	Aa1-25	Aa1-26

The structural form (8 glyphs following the 18 first) is the same, but the pictures conveyed by the glyphs are quite different. Yet, the 'nut' in Ca1-26 could correspond to the 'nut' from which the Sun (or Saturn?) expands at right in Aa1-24.

In Aa1-20 Moon seems to be at the top like an overturned boat, while in Ca1-22 Mercury is standing onboard a moon-like vessel. His arm is infertile (Y), while in Aa1-20 the moon arm is nourishing. The overturned boat probably represents the sky dome above (the 'cap'), while Mercury at midsummer will inaugurate next half (the 'cup').

Tapa mea in Aa1-21 has a little opening (a 'crack in time') at center right while in Ca1-21 half the glyph has disappeared. Mars is going under at midsummer.

The pair of manu rere in Ca1-22 (Mercury) and Ca1-24 (Venus) have short wings, but not of the same sort as those in Ca1-9 (Jupiter) and Ca1-12 (Sun):


Ca1-9	Ca1-10	Ca1-11	Ca1-12


Ca1-22	Ca1-23	Ca1-24

Also the beaks are different. The crack at right in Ca1-10 is the same type of sign as the crack at right in Aa1-21:


Ca1-10	Ca1-21

Aa1-21	Aa1-10

Probably the 8 glyphs in C are structural equivalents of those 8 in A. As a further evidence we can compare the upraised moon crescent arm in Ca1-24 with that in Aa1-24:


Aa1-24	Ca1-24

In Ca1-24 the elbow sign in 'empty', while in Aa1-24 it gives birth. The arm in Aa1-24 is nourishing (kai), while in Ca1-24 it is formed after ihe tau. Yet, at number 24 there are elbow ornaments in both texts.

The 'barren' state in K is illustrated in more places, and the change of state at number 26 is like that in a mirror:

barren				fertile
barren	Ca1-20	Ca1-22	Ca1-24	fertile	Ca1-26
fertile				barren
fertile	Aa1-20	Aa1-22	Aa1-24	barren	Aa1-26

If Tahua has the perspective of the Sun, then C must have the perspective of the Moon (at least in the first glyph line).


Ca1-1	Ca1-2	Ca1-3	Ca1-4

Ca1-5	Ca1-6	Ca1-7	Ca1-8


Ca1-9	Ca1-10	Ca1-11	Ca1-12	Ca1-13

Ca1-14	Ca1-15	Ca1-16	Ca1-17	Ca1-18

Mercury - always glyph number 1 in the line - is only partly visible (also at Ca1-8). Sun is here the one who is 'down in the earth' (puo), definitely not visible as yet (but full of life - the outline is drawn complete).

It seems as if Moon is the one who is separating light (at left from us seen) and night (mea ke). With Mars at Ca1-7 (kahi) life (spring sun) returns. We move fast in time, because next there is midsummer (Mercury as Rogo). The 1st pillar of spring is Moon and therefore she should be the one who separates heaven (light) and earth (darkness). But the vertical imaginary beam is at left (in the past), and presumably represents the division between the old and the new year.

The K text has not much in common, in Ka1-8 (Mercury) has a 'dead' fish at right, not drawn with a closed perimeter (cfr also Rogo at Ca1-8):


Ka1-1	Ka1-2	Ka1-3	Ka1-4

Ka1-5	Ka1-6	Ka1-7	Ka1-8

Ka1-9	Ka1-10	Ka1-11	Ka1-12

In K the text flows from Ka1-1 to Ka1-12 and then there is a vacant space, appropriate for the time beyond the 12th and last month if we count with 30 days in each.

Notably Mars in Ka1-7 is of the type tagata rere. Instead of a head (which has been lost) there is now a thread. His life cycle is finished (his elbow ornament is formed as tao - that's where his head went, I suppose). To the right lies the dark autumn (henua with two horizontal lines across).

The hanging 'dead' fish in front at Ka1-8 looks a little like the kahu in Ca1-7. Except - there are no fins (signs of moon, life, light) and the inverted henua ora has no vertical (poporo) center line:


poporo	henua ora	kahi		Ca1-7	Ka1-8

The dead fish is coming from an ihe tau sign with a straight horizontal base, Mercury is at summer solstice.

In Tahua the first 12 glyphs describe it in yet another way, but the triplet of quarters is a structural feature common with K:


Aa1-1	Aa1-2	Aa1-3	Aa1-4

Aa1-5	Aa1-6	Aa1-7	Aa1-8

Aa1-9	Aa1-10	Aa1-11	Aa1-12

Ihe tau signs appear all the way through Aa1-9--12, but the first two are 'cracked', Aa1-9 in one place and Aa1-10 in two places. In A1-11--12 the top of the ihe tau signs are drawn with closed perimeters (and with bulges, possibly indicating pregnancy).

A waning crescent in Aa1-10 is being released from the elbow - the waning season of Sun is complete and a little moon is born. In C there is only a hint of the 'crack in time', with henua (Ca1-10) open a little at center right:


Ca1-9	Ca1-10	Ca1-11	Ca1-12	Ca1-13

The pair of manu rere are exceptional, because their wings are not meant for flying. Possibly we should count with 20 days here - 9 * 20 = 180 and 12 * 20 = 240. With Ca1-13 comes a great gap in time. We can see the old (left) figure 'in person' while the little sign at right is only conceptual as yet. 13 * 20 = 260.

Then follows a Rogo glyph with legs - he moves again (and the crack at right in henua has been mended):


Ca1-14	Ca1-15	Ca1-16	Ca1-17	Ca1-18

Fire fingers and a hua comes with Jupiter, then Venus seems to enter one of her dark phases. Perhaps Ca1-16 illustrates spring and Ca1-17 autumn. Saturn in Ca1-18 holds a bent henua, which we can guess refers to the Moon, cfr in Aa1-18:


Aa1-13	Aa1-14	Aa1-15	Aa1-16	Aa1-17	Aa1-18

There is a tagata rere at right in Aa1-15.

The 'cracks' makes me remember:

"Tu'i Tofua was the son of Vakafuhu. His mother was Langitaetaea, but she was only one of the many young women whom Vakafuhu had living behind the fences of his dwelling.

When Tu'i Tofua grew he was given the first-born sons of all the wives for his companions, and they all used to play sika outside the enclosure of Vakafuhu. They made their sika of clean-peeled sticks and threw them in turns along the ground, they glanced them off a mound and each one tried to make the longest throw.

One day while Vakafuhu was sleeping off a kava-drinking those boys were playing their game outside, and Tu'i Tofua threw his sika. Then indeed the enormous strength of Tu'i Tofua made that sika fly over the fences into his father's place. It landed where the women were and they all began to giggle, those girls, and shriek and laugh.

They did this because they wanted that handsome youth to come among them, they desired him. More than his father they desired him. They fell with joy upon the sika of their master's son, and snapped it.

When he came inside to get it back they called out things that made him embarrassed. 'Haven't you got another long thing there, Tu'i?' those women said. 'This one's broken.' And they put their hands across their faces and they laughed ..."

(A story from Ha'apai according to Legends of the South Seas.)