summer haiku – the red, red rose = la rose si rouge

summer haiku – the red, red rose = la rose si rouge

the red, red rose
I cup in your hands  –
the blush on your cheeks




la rose si rouge
que je mets dans tes mains –
tes joues roses

Richard Vallance

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summer haiku d’été – blood-red poppies = les coquelicots rouges

summer haiku d’été – blood-red poppies  = les coquelicots rouges

blood-red poppies 
assaulted by rain –
a murder of crows



les coquelicots rouges
assaillis par la pluie –
une horde de corbeaux
 
Richard Vallance

autumn haiku (Tom Thomson, 1877-1917, Autumn’s Garland, 1915) – aureate leaves = feuilles dorées

autumn haiku (Tom Thomson, 1877-1917, Autumn’s Garland, 1915) -  aureate leaves = feuilles dorées

aureate leaves
sweeping a rock face,
autumn’s garland



feuilles dorées
sur une paroi rocheuse,
guirelande d’automne

Richard Vallance 

This is the first of many haiku I shall be composing based on the magnificent paintings of the most famous of the illustrious Canadian Group of Seven painters of the early twentieth century, Tom Thomson (1877-1917). Tom Thomson disappeared on Canoe Lake on July 8, 1917. He was presumed drowned.

Cet haiku est le tout premier de plusieurs que je vais écrire, qui sont tous basés sur les peintures magnifiques du peintre Tom Thomson ( 1877 – 1917 ), le plus renommé de tous le peintres illustres du Groupe des Sept canadien au début du vingtième siècle. Tom Thomson a disparu au Lac Canoe le 8 juillet, 1917. Il est présumé mort. 

Yet another Minoan Linear A tablet with 3 words I have already deciphered

Yet another Minoan Linear A tablet with 3 words I have already deciphered:



Here you see yet another Minoan Linear A tablet which features not just 1, but 3 Minoan Linear A words I h ave previously deciphered. These are adu = “prefix for measurement”, daweda = “medium size amphora” (see illustration below) and kukani = “deep red wine”. It is gratifying to discover that 3 words I have recently deciphered appear on a second Linear A tablet. It is wide open to speculation  whether or not this confirms my decipherments. Still, a second tablet can do no harm to our cause.  

2 new Minoan Linear A words for “wine”, aka = “wine skin” & kukani = “red” nos. 31 & 32

2 new Minoan Linear A words for “wine”, aka = “wine skin”  & kukani = “red” nos. 31 & 32:





On these 2 Linear A tablets, the first of unknown provenance to me, and the second Linear A tablet Haghia Triada HT 38, there appear two words of interest, the first being the logogram, aka = “wine skin” and the second, kukani “red”. The latter corresponds roughly to the Mycenaean Greek Linear A words erutara =“red” or mitowesa = “deep red”. It could also mean “honey”, for “honey wine”, but I am less inclined to that interpretation. Red wine was much more common than honey wine in Minoan and Mycenaean Greece, just as it is today.

P.S. As long as we stick to Linear A tablets dealing either with vessels or with wine, we can usually decipher at least part of them. It is when we try to pass beyond the bounds of these two commodities that we run into real trouble. It is of course intriguing that vessels and wine are intimately related, and in fact they often appear on the same tablet in Minoan Linear A, just as they do in Mycenaean Linear B. 

Linear B tablet KN 641 R j 02, textiles painted red

Linear B tablet KN 641 R j 02, textiles painted red:



Linear B tablet KN 641 R j 02 repeatedly refers to textiles painted red (3 times) and apparently to textiles painted purple, once only. The word Oapapa appears to be a woman’s name (very likely Minoan), which suits the context quite well. The word kekareareiyo, in the genitive case, also appears to be a type of cloth,  given that it is (probably) followed by the word POpureya (right-truncated after the initial syllabogram PO), meaning that whatever type of cloth it is, it is not purple. The word papeya = farpeia on line 4 is also almost certainly a type of cloth, since it is painted red. The units of textiles referred to are most likely rolls or skeins. Several place names are mentioned, so the textile industry for dying cloth is apparently widespread. The peculiar thing is that the toponyms are all minor place names.

Linear B tablet K 04-16 N b 01 from the Knossos “Armoury”

Linear B tablet K 04-16 N b 01 from the Knossos “Armoury”


There are a couple of oddities in the Linear B on this tablet, as illustrated by the Notes in the illustration of it above.  Since Chris Tselentis lists “reins” as – aniyapi – one would expect the instrumental plural to be – aniyapisi - . But I am not the scribe, and I was not there when he inscribed the tablet. So who knows?

On the other hand, his spelling of – araromotemena – is definitely wrong. He has it as – araromotomena – and that spelling turns up neither in L.R. Palmer, The Interpretation of Mycenaean Texts (1963) nor in Chris Tselentis’ excellent Linear B Lexicon.

Other than that, everything’s cool. So there you have it.