Kubla Khan and The 'Phags-pa Script

The Phagspa (/ˈpɑːɡzˌpɑː/ PAHGZ-PAH), ʼPhags-pa or ḥPʻags-pa script is an alphabet designed by the Tibetan monk and State Preceptor (later Imperial Preceptor) Drogön Chögyal Phagpa (1235–1280) for Kublai Khan (r. 1264–1294), the founder of the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) in China, as a unified script for the written languages within the Yuan. The actual use of this script was limited to about a hundred years during the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty, and it fell out of use with the advent of the Ming dynasty.

 

Kublai Khan, when written (horizontally & left2right) in 'Phags-pa script is

ꡢꡟꡎ ꡙꡗ ꡢꡖꡋ (Qub-lay Qan).

 

Writing William in the 'Phags-pa script (ꡏꡡꡃ ꡣꡡꡙ ꡐ ꡜꡞ) involves breaking it down into phonetic syllables and selecting the corresponding characters.

 

William (ꡓꡞꡙ ꡙꡞ ꡗꡏ).

 

In 'Phags-pa, 'William' would typically be rendered as Wil-li-yam:

 

🔹️  Wil (ꡓꡞꡙ):

▪️  WA (ꡓ) + Vowel I (ꡞ) + LA (ꡙ).

 

🔹️  li (ꡙꡞ):

▪️  LA (ꡙ) + Vowel I (ꡞ).

 

🔹️  yam (ꡗꡏ):

▪️  YA (ꡗ) + MA (ꡏ).

 

🔹️  Notice that my name contains the

       3 digit sequence 666 with one 6 per part. But, having said that, it's also the case that each 6 can be thought to be preceded or followed by at least one other digit. So, my number might more accurately be taken to be 6226 36. Humorously, I like the number 333 as The Half-Evil Number. Note that the combination 666 - again as d6d6d6 (where d is any digit [and where null ⍉ means 'no digit present']) - is also in the 'Phags-pa script translation of ''Phags-pa script'.

 

 

Kubla Khan

By Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Or, a vision in a dream. A Fragment.

 

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan

A stately pleasure-dome decree:

Where Alph, the sacred river, ran

Through caverns measureless to man

   Down to a sunless sea.

So twice five miles of fertile ground

With walls and towers were girdled round;

And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,

Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;

And here were forests ancient as the hills,

Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted

Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!

A savage place! as holy and enchanted

As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted

By woman wailing for her demon-lover!

And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,

As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,

A mighty fountain momently was forced:

Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst

Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,

Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher’s flail:

And mid these dancing rocks at once and ever

It flung up momently the sacred river.

Five miles meandering with a mazy motion

Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,

Then reached the caverns measureless to man,

And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean;

And ’mid this tumult Kubla heard from far

Ancestral voices prophesying war!

   The shadow of the dome of pleasure

   Floated midway on the waves;

   Where was heard the mingled

   measure

   From the fountain and the caves.

It was a miracle of rare device,

A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!

   A damsel with a dulcimer

   In a vision once I saw:

   It was an Abyssinian maid

   And on her dulcimer she played,

   Singing of Mount Abora.

   Could I revive within me

   Her symphony and song,

   To such a deep delight ’twould win

    me,

That with music loud and long,

I would build that dome in air,

That sunny dome! those caves of ice!

And all who heard should see them there,

And all should cry, Beware! Beware!

His flashing eyes, his floating hair!

Weave a circle round him thrice,

And close your eyes with holy dread

For he on honey-dew hath fed,

And drunk the milk of Paradise.

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