autumn haiku – if you are in tears = si tu es en larmes

autumn haiku – if you are in tears = si tu es en larmes





for Barbara Harris and the whole Harris family. Barbara
passed away November 6 2019. Judy Harris, Barbara's
daughter-in-law, is my first cousin. 

if you are in tears
tears are roses in the rain
weeping dew

Richard Vallance

pour Barbara Harris et toute la famille Harris. Barabara est
décédée le 6 novembre 2019Harris, la belle-fille de Barbara,
est ma cousine germaine

si tu es en larmes
tes larmes les roses dans la pluie
versent la rosée

Richard Vallance

photo public domain

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summer haiku – roses straddle = les roses traversent

summer haiku – roses straddle = les roses traversent

roses straddle
the picket fence –
oaken musk




les roses traversent
la palissade –
musc de chêne

Richard Vallance

© by Richard Vallance Janke 2019 (All Rights Reserved = Tous droits réservés)
photo © by Régis Auffray 2019

summer haiku d’été – while in the inn = là dans l’auberge

summer haiku d’été – while in the inn = là dans l’auberge  

while in the inn
sipping jasmine tee 
the scent of roses



là dans l’auberge
l’on boit du thé au jasmin
le parfum des roses

Richard Vallance

summer haiku d’été – the blue bird fresco = fresque de l’oiseau bleu

summer haiku d’été – the blue bird fresco = fresque de l’oiseau bleu

the blue bird fresco
with wild roses and irises
springs to life



les roses et iris
sur la fresque de l’oiseau bleu
renaissent encore

Richard Vallance

The blue bird fresco is to be seen in Knossos.
La fresque de l’oiseau bleu se trouve à Knossos.

Linear A tablet HT 6 (Haghia Triada), ripe figs, pistachio-nuts, pomegranates & roses

Linear A tablet HT 6 (Haghia Triada), ripe figs, pistachio-nuts, pomegranates & roses:

Decipherment:

RECTO:

15 units (something like litres) liquid of ripe figs from fig trees, 24 pistachio-nuts, 10 barley cakes (apparently seasoned with pistachio-nuts), 2 roses, and 4 more units (something like kilograms) of ripe fruit + 22 DAQERA? (some kind of fruit), 22 3/4 units (something like litres or kilograms) falling to earth + 15 1/2 figs

VERSO:

3 growing (grown) ripe (i.e. the figs) with 1 unit (something like a flagon) of drops of wine in 3 units (something like kilograms or kilolitres) of honey, and 66 units (something like kilograms) of DADUMA (some kind of fruit, possibly or even probably grapes) + 3 1/4 units of REKI? + 35 SAMA? + 17 1/2 PA3NINA?

So as we can see, most of the vocabulary on this tablet appears to be Mycenaean-derived. The tablet appears to deal with a wonderful recipe for dessert.

10 Mycenaean Linear B & Minoan Linear A words for plants & spices (grand total = 27)

10 Mycenaean Linear B & Minoan Linear A words for plants & spices (grand total = 27):



This chart lists 10 Mycenaean Linear B & Minoan Linear A words for plants & spices, with the Linear B in the left column, its Minoan Linear A in the middle column, and the English translation in the right column. It should be noted that I had to come up with a few Mycenaean Linear B words for plants on my own, because they are nowhere attested on Linear B tablets, regardless of provenance. Nevertheless, the spellings I have attributed to these words are probably correct. See the chart above. While most Mycenaean Linear B words and their Minoan Linear A words are equivalent, some are quite unalike. For instance, we have serino for celery in Mycenaean Greek and sedina in Minoan, and kitano in Mycenaean Greek versus tarawita in Minoan. There is a critical distinction to be made between Minoan Linear A kuruku, which means crocus, from which saffron is derived, and kanako, its diminutive, referring to its derivative, saffron,  which is identical in form and meaning to its Mycenaean Linear B counterpart. The ultimate termination U in Minoan Linear A always refers to larger objects. Hence, kuruku must mean “crocus” while its diminutive, kanako, means “saffron”, just as in Mycenaean Greek. This latter discovery is my own.

I wish to emphasize as strongly as I can that I did not decipher these words in Minoan Linear A. Previous researchers were able to do so by the process of regressive extrapolation in most of the cases. Regressive extrapolation is the process whereby later words in a known language, in this case Mycenaean Greek, are regressively extrapolated to what philologists consider to have been their earlier equivalents in a more ancient language, in this case, the Minoan language, which is the best candidate which can be readily twinned with Mycenaean  Greek. The primary reason why all of these words can be matched up (relatively) closely in the Minoan language and in Mycenaean Greek is that they are all pre-Indo-European. In other words, Mycenaean Greek inherited most of the words you see in this chart from the Minoan language. It is understood that these words are not Greek words at all, not even in Mycenaean Greek. Almost all  of them survived into classical Greek, and are still in use in modern languages. For instance, in English, we have: cedar, celery, cypress, dittany, lily & olive oil, all of which can be traced back as far as the Minoan language (ca. 3,800 – 3,500 BCE), or some 5,800 years ago.

It is to be noted, however, that I am the first philologist to have ever written out these words in both the Linear A and Linear B syllabaries.

This brings the total number of Minoan Linear A words we have deciphered to at least 27.