TRANSLATIONS

TRANSLATIONS

The rongorongo texts are like labyrinths, time consuming and getting nowhere. Let us therefore leave the structure of the formidable Tahua, and move on to next chapter in the glyph dictionary:

A few preliminary remarks and imaginations:

1. The 'flow' towards right from henua in Aa4-36--37 exemplifies that rima aueue glyphs do not necessarily have 'sharp knees':


Aa4-36	Aa4-37

When classifying glyphs in different fundamental types I decided to use as a prototype for rima aueue a glyph with a 'sharp knee' because I wanted to show similarities with first of all viri, kava, and haati:


viri	kava	rima aueue	haati

Here, when we will discuss the meaning of rima aueue, I propose that the knee often found in rima aueue glyphs probably is a sign added to the primary glyph type, which has undulations but no 'sharp knee'.

Rima aueue glyphs come in two main types, those with and those without a 'knee'. That these two main types probably are related can be inferred by examining e.g. Pb7-58--61:


Pb7-58	Pb7-59	Pb7-60	Pb7-61

My example, Aa4-36--37, has been used at hanau:

By using numerical cues it is possible to relate koti (Ab4-36) with the first of the hanau glyphs with 'cap' at right:

side b			side a
279		384	286		383
	Ab4-36 (280)			Aa4-36 (951)
280		670		384

The number of glyphs on side a is 670 and on side b 664, together 1334. The distance between Ab4-36 and Aa4-36 is also 670 (= 384 + 286) glyphs, and the distance from Aa4-36 up to and including Ab4-36 is 384 + 280 = 664 glyphs.

If a 'cut' (koti) in the text is done to the right of Ab4-36 a reasonable interpretation is that 140 days now are in the past. To the right side of 670 glyphs in the center we find 384 glyphs (and also beyond Ab4-36 to the end of side b). By dividing the number of glyphs by 2, to convert into days, we will have the ubiquitous 192 days

Ab4-29 and Aa4-55 can be defined by Ab4-36 respectively by Aa4-36:

272
	Ab4-29	Ab4-30	Ab4-31	Ab4-32

	Ab4-33	Ab4-34	Ab4-35	Ab4-36 (280)

670
	Aa4-36 (951)	Aa4-37
*672 = 24 28**

		14			4
Aa4-38	Aa4-39	14	Aa4-54	Aa4-55	4	Aa4-60	Aa4-61 (976)
24

672 + 24 = 696 = 24 * 29, the season of light (life, leaf) is over. The 12-day dark period which begins with te pito o te henua (Aa4-38--39) has Aa4-55 as day number 8, a number which implies a new start. 4 * 38 = 8 * 19.

Also Ab4-29 should define a dark day, and 29 is a number which confirms. 273 = 3 * 91 is another such sign, because after 3 quarters the next quarter, the 4th, should lie in the dark. Toes are visible in the forward direction, though, which presumably indicates that spring lies ahead. At sunrise the shadows break (cfr Ab4-36).

4-36 suggests the last quarter of the year. Aa4-55 is the third and last of its kind:


Ab3-62	Ab4-29	Aa4-55

The 'baby' is fully grown. It should be midsummer. The season of 2 (Y) is arriving - in Aa4-36--37 there are twins of henua + rima aueue.

I now discover that 364 is embedded here:

279		384	305		364
	Ab4-36 (280)			Aa4-55 (306)
664			670

With 364 / 2 = 182 days left of the year Aa4-55 is clearly giving birth to the 2nd half of the year.

306 = 2 * 153 is not as clear as 2 * 140 = 280, but 53 suggests the last phase of the year (beyond 52 weeks).

4 * 36 = 144 = 12 * 12 and 4 * 55 = 220 = 10 times 22.

I must take this as my first example relating to rima aueue.