TRANSLATIONS

next page previous page up home

The page from '144':

 

Spring sun represents fire and when water arrives he therefore must 'die'. In Q it is possible to read where this 'water' is located in the calendar:

2 34 2 4 133
Qa8-47 (342) Qa9-3 Qa9-38 Qa9-41 *Qb3-37 (521)
180 glyphs = 90 days
214 54
*Qb3-38 (522) *Qa2-32
270 glyphs = 135 days

These are all the vai glyphs in Q:

*Qa2-32 *Qa4-23 Qa8-47 Qa9-3 Qa9-38 Qa9-41 *Qb3-38

A sharp eye will find a vertical straight line of measurement at right in *Qa2-32 (and also a dot for drawing attention). The season of vai apparently is ending there.

It seems to begin with the curious Qa8-47, drawn like an uplifted fruit (Hua Reva), and after a quarter there will be a break because the season of nuku arrives (at which point a reader of the parallel H text has to turn that tablet around and continue to read on its side b).

90 + 135 = 225 = 15 * 15, that - I suggest - is the duration of the season of vai. The season of spring sun will then be 368 - 225 = 143 days long:

74 211
*Qa4-23 (130)
286 glyphs = 143 days

One day seems to be missing in the Q text, because sun ought to have 12 * 12 = 144 days. Maybe we have to read the last day of the calendar twice (as when we are reading G):

*Qb5-33 *Qb5-34 (608) *Qb5-35 *Qb5-36
368 = 608 / 2 + 64 369 = day 1

369 can be understood as 36 (sun) and 9 ('death'). However, the numbers in *Qb5-36 suggest 5 * 36 = 180 days, which should make us turn our attention from winter solstice to high summer:

Qa8-46 Qa8-47 Qa9-1 Qa9-2 (344)
342 / 2 + 64 = 235 236
Qa9-3 Qa9-4
237

Presumably the Hua Reva sign in Qa8-47 should be understood to mean that we are still in the season of the sun. But the preceding autumn vaha mea shark is announcing that next season is opening up.

Day 236 is where we find Te Pei (= 8 * 29.5) and 237 is the first day of the next part of the calendar. Vai has arrived (Qa9-3) and the head is gone (cfr the left figure in Qa9-4). The head was first transformed into a 'fruit' formed after vai, then it lifted and went off (Qa8-47). The vai season is in the text suggested to be the natural consequence of sun's Hua Reva.

Day 236 has sun at left and moon at right. The sun flames are drawn with a downward, not quite horizontal, line across the middle. A new glyph line is beginning.

 

The spring sun season is exceptional. 64 is measured out from winter solstice to the beginning of the front side and 64 can also be found before the back side arrives:

63
Ga6-24 (165) Ga8-25 (229)
165 + 64 = 229 229 + 64 = 293

Although 3 * 64 = 192, 144 is intruding. 2 * 64 + 144 + 64 = 336 = 400 - 64. It must have been noticed that 4 * 64 + 144 = 400.

64 + 144 = 208 and 208 + 64 = 272. 272 + 64 = 336.

Earlier 293 was constructed as 229 + 64, and then 70 added to reach 363:

Ga6-24 (165) 64 + 165 = 229 Ga8-25 (229) 64 + 165 + 64 = 293 293 + 70 = 363
Qa6-24 (229) 64 + 230 / 2 = 179 Qa8-25 (320) 64 + 320 / 2 + 64 = 288 288 + 75 = 363

Changing 70 respectively 75 to 107 respectively 112 in order to reach 400 does not appear to be a likely method.

If we change the day of Rogo (363) to 369 the results will be:

Ga6-24 (165) 64 + 165 = 229 Ga8-25 (229) 64 + 165 + 64 = 293 293 + 76 = 369
Qa6-24 (229) 64 + 230 / 2 = 179 Qa8-25 (320) 64 + 320 / 2 + 64 = 288 288 + 81 = 369

These results are not much better. 288 suggests next number should be 368 (because 36 * 8 = 288). And 368 has a nice composition (36 and 8).

76 and 81 will then be changed to 75 respectively 80, and both numbers are related to 5 (the 'fire'). And 368 - 363 = 5.

How can we then state that the Q text should have 144 + 225 days? Maybe, after all, spring sun will not reach day 144, he will be decapitated in day 143.

In Q we can count: 300 - 143 = 157. Day number 157 should be where the spring sun season is being born.

It means day number 157 - 64 = 93 counted from the beginning of side a:

Qa5-33 Qa5-34 Qa5-35 Qa5-36 (186) Qa5-37 Qa5-38 Qa5-39 Qa5-40
92 93 94 95

Sometimes we are surprised! Unquestionably Qa5-36 (where 5 * 36 = 180 and where the ordinal number is 186 counted from Qa1-1) is the birth place of spring sun. It coincides with night beginning to give way to morning.

The 7th flame of the sun has made us aware of 7 * 60 = 420 = 6 * 70. Here we now have another example of the same type of phenomenon. 6 * 30 = 180 = 5 * 36.

The sign in the background in Qa5-37 could mean the sun child is arriving in a double canoe.

If we count with 144 instead of 143, his birth will be in day 92, also a possibility. But the powerful dot is helping us to decide. He has only 143 days. (And next period is beginning with 5-37 where 37 = 20 + 17.)

In day 144 he has been 'baptised' and converted from 'fire' to 'water'.