TRANSLATIONS

TRANSLATIONS

Next page, with underpages:

Three identical nuku glyphs follow not far thereafter:


Qa3-13	Qa3-14	Qa3-15	Qa3-16	Qa3-17	Qa3-18

Qa3-19	Qa3-20	Qa3-21	Qa3-22	Qa3-23	Qa3-24 (90)

The maro strings hanging down probably indicate the end of the 'nuku season'. The sign of 3 empty hands are repeated by a sign of 3 nuku glyphs with maro strings in front.


Qa3-5	Qa3-6	Qa3-7	Qa3-8	Qa3-9	Qa3-10

The smoothly rounded arms and henua signs indicate another season than the one which will follow (spring). The arms depicted are left arms, female arms.

In all there are 8 maro strings with 4 'fire feathers' each. But hanau in Qa3-23 has another sort with only 3 feathers, and it is probably referring to the birth of spring.

Manu rere in Qa3-14 may depict the 'spirit' of the nuku season leaving.

The Moriori fishermen had a creation myth, in which first Rangitokona separated heaven and earth and then created the first man Tu (which I prefer to translate as 'standing up').

To make Tu alive Rangitokona had to add something:

"... Then the spirit was gathered in. And this was the chant for that work:

Let the spirit of the man be gathered to the world of being, the world of light. / Then see. Placed in the body is the flying bird, the spirit-breath. / Then breathe! / Sneeze, living spirit, to the world of being, the world of light. / Then see. Placed in the body is the flying bird, the breath. / Be breathing then, great Tu. Now live!

Then man existed, and the progeny of Tu increased ..." (Legends of the South Seas)

If we translate back again, from English to Polynesian, the essence of spirit - the 'flying bird' - will be manu rere:

manu rere

The sun god has two wives, one in the far north:

... Hine-takurua lived with her elder Tangaroa (a sea being - origin and personified form of fish). Her labours were connected with Tangaroa - that is, with fish ...

... The Sun spends part of the year with the Winter Maid ... afar out on the ocean. In the month of June occurs the changing of the Sun and he slowly returns to his other wife, to the Summer Maid who dwells on land ...

... The old folk have told me that at the time of the winter solstice the wise men of yore would say 'The Sun is returning to land to dwell with the Summer Maid ...

Several years ago, while collecting manu rere glyphs from all the rongorongo texts and comparing them, I noticed that Qa3-14 was characterized by tiny wings and fishy feet in comparison with manu rere without extra signs:


Qa3-14	*Qa7-25

The fishy winter spirit is leaving in Qa3-14. The number signifies π, that half a cycle is ending.


Qa3-14	Qa7-125	Qa9-17	Qb1-5	Qb1-11	Qb2-13	Qb3-10	Qb3-12
tiny wings, fishy feet	unmarked	straight left wing, strange head
		not thin long left wing			thin long left wing	not thin long left wing
		not big bird					big bird

Qb4-14	Qb6-119	Qb6-122	Qb6-124
depressed beak, straight left wing, strange head	strange head

*Qa7-25 (279) was the only unmarked manu rere I could find. In a way it makes the glyph really marked:


*Qa7-15 (269)	*Qa7-16	*Qa7-17	*Qa7-18	*Qa7-19	*Qa7-20
199		272 / 2 + 64 = 200 = 0		1

*Qa7-21	*Qa7-22	*Qa7-23	*Qa7-24	*Qa7-25	*Qa7-26
2		3		4

With Hanga Takaure (*Qa7-17) as point of reference, *Qa7-25 will be number 9. Here, evidently, the spirit (manu rere) of the sun king is leaving.

In G we can search for the corresponding days. 204 - 64 = 140 (as in 10 fortnights):

20
20	Ga5-22	Ga5-23	Ga5-24 (136)	Ga5-25	Ga5-26	Ga5-27	Ga5-28	Ga5-29 (140)

Hanga Takaure is at Ga5-24 (where the 1st '36' is ending, day 200 from winter solstice - as alluded to by the henua period number).

Moreover, the 3 feathers up front on ariki probably represent the spring sun which will be 'eaten' (kai in G, vaha kai in Q), a 'joke' which we can understand only now by comparing with Q. We must remember this, that the kai gesture has two 'faces', it can either be used to indicate the growth of the figure at left or as the figure at left being 'devoured'. It can either mean tagata kai or kai tagata.