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TRANSLATIONS
The book of Worthen, which I now have read through, has delivered two valuable clues for understanding the rongorongo texts. The first one is the concept (or rather image) of a revolving fiery wheel which goes down into the water, an idea which explains e.g. why Nga Kope Ririva (standing out there in the water at the extreme southwest of the island) is not a Hau Maka, why sun disappears at Kb4-14 (10 days earlier), and why there is no glyph at position Kb5-1:
The other clue, which I have not mentioned earlier, gives a 3-dimensional view of what so far has been only a vague 2-dimensional picture. We can understand that sun by moving from east to west is one necessary dimension of the world. Then we have - bit for bit - assembled also the dimension of time, which not sun governs but the moon. Sun occupies east - west, and moon must therefore have north - south. Or south - north? A completely irrelevant question - because time is not a spatial matter. From Hamlet's Mill we have the fundamental truth of time: ... 'fire' is actually a great circle reaching from the North Pole of the celestial sphere to its South Pole ... Time is coordinated by the horizon in the east. Dawn comes not at a point but at the line of the eastern horizon, which goes from north to south or the other way around. Sun (and all the other stars) are born in the east. The eastern horizon is where 'fire' is born. Consequently there must be 'water' at the horizon in the west. Fire and water are opposites. For Polynesians, living where sky and sea meet at the western horizon - implying that also the sky is some kind of ocean - it is obvious that the sun (and all the other stars) must be quenched after moving 180º across the sky above. But the idea does not originate with the Polynesians: "... The Milky Way is ... the analog, visible by night, of the path of the sun's journey. Both are conceived of as the rivers that connect the two oceans, one bright and shining which the sun illuminates, and the other ... enveloped in darkness. One of these oceans is on 'this side', the other is on 'the other side'. As these rivers pass near dusk and dawn they disappear - the sun over the horizon, and the Milky Way into the light sky ..." (Worthen) Both side a and side b of the K tablet are 'this side', but that is probably an exception among the rongorongo texts. The half-parallel G text runs on both 'sides' and presumably with side a equal to 'this side' and side b equal to 'the other side'. In the C text, we have seen, the moon calendar (centrally located on side a) apparently defines 'this side' as the first 6 glyph lines on side a:
'This side', I guess, could be distributed as the first 6 glyph lines on side a together with the first 6 glyph lines on side b - which also has a visible structure and which also are 'up' in contrast to the 200 glyphs 'below'. 'The other side' would then be distributed at the bottom (with 200 + 200 = 400 glyphs). 'Dawn' and 'dusk' could be 24 + 4 = 28 glyphs in the border zone between 'up' (in the direction which flames move) and 'down' (in the direction which water moves). 13 * 24 + 28 + 400 = 740 = 392 + 348. The structure is now beginning to take on a 3-dimensional gown. Marduk cut the night monster in two:
We can therefore expect also the rongorongo texts to cut into parts 'the other side'. C is perhaps an example. In K the first glyph line (a1) has 24 glyphs, equal to the number of glyphs in the last glyph line (b5). Are these glyph lines on 'the other side' or are they at 'dawn' respectively 'dusk'? 'This side' does not end with 167. The spirit of the sun continues 25 (5 * 5) glyphs further on. 'Dusk' begins at Kb4-15 and ends at Kb5-20:
The number of glyphs can no longer be regarded as definitely equal to number of days. 'Mist' makes the glyphs gradually vanish and only in our imagination can we continue counting days. Although we have not so far explored the beginning of the K text as thoroughly as its end, we can suspect a similar misty beginning - 'dawn'. |
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