In this life or the next… a marvelous translation into ancient Greek and Mycenaean Linear B

In this life or the next… a marvelous translation into ancient Greek and Mycenaean Linear B:

I just received an e-mail today from Brian Wyble, who sent me the inscription in English, ancient Greek and Linear B you see here:

What is so astonishing about his translation into both ancient Greek and Mycenaean Linear B is that he got both bang on, even though this is his first ever attempt at writing in both scripts. Given that he is just now learning ancient Greek and Mycenaean Greek simultaneously, I am frankly astonished by his amazing achievement. I have invited him to follow Linear A, Linear B, Knossos and Mycenae, and to start learning Linear B in earnest, so that he can soon turn to deciphering Linear B tablets. And believe me, as my colleague Rita Roberts can only too well attest to, he has his work cut out for him, in view of the fact that there are at least 1,000 tablets I can send him for decipherment.

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Quotation for January 2017: The Stone is Cast, my own sonnet

The Stone is Cast

The Stone is Cast

John 8:7

So since they kept on and on nagging him, he answered them, and said,
“Let the one among you who is sinless be the first to cast a stone at her.”

As stones are cast against the inner walls,
the lessee of the castle wracks his brains,
while wicked winter rails against its halls
and shakes the filings off his dungeon’s chains
where he’s incarcerated serfs at whim,
because they’d dared defy his iron will:
his fingers drew the rusty bolt on him
as well as them, and held him, freezing, still, 
until he fled that vile, ensanguined room, 
their blasted thane — unconscious of his sin,
though conscious of what cold impending doom
was, as winter is, to do him in.
     Oh when it does, its frozen blast shall blind
     him to the shattered mortar of his mind.

Richard Vallance,

January 3, 2017