On June 22, 1937, seventy-seven years ago, Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo chose to end his life. The Fanjanahantany was not yet ten years old when he was born, yet it is remarkable that he was able to write poetry in both Malagasy and French with such mastery. His command of both languages was so profound that it is difficult to determine which he wrote first and which was translation. Rabearivelo was interested in new things, including learning Spanish, but he could not escape being a child of the nineteenth century, which had only recently ended. He was just twenty years old when the Andriana Kingdom published his first known collection of poems in the newspaper-book "Vakio ity" in 1915. The elders who knew him and spoke with him passed down stories, perhaps wondering where the century in which Ranavalona III (born 1861) and Rainilaiarivony (died 1896) lived would lead. This is the voice of the old language, the heart of ancient wisdom, the speech of the ancestors, which shaped his mind and continues to captivate us today. In Rabearivelo's work, I find the word "Barea," which the Dictionary defines as "BARE or BARIA: wild cattle or untended oxen living in Bongolava." "BARIA or BARE: cattle, wild cattle. Among the Antankarana in Vohémar, baria or varia means enclosure, pasture, and cattle kept in an enclosure or pasture are called cattle in baria." In this work titled "One Month of Malagasy Language," and for information, here is a poem by Rabearivelo that celebrates the word Ox. There is an old word, "JININJA," which we no longer commonly use: jinja with the prefix -in. Its meaning can be understood from the explanation given by Father Abinal and Malzac in their Dictionary (1888) regarding "Jinja-andry": a mark carved on a house post to follow a child's growth or remember events. The knife, and the carved jinja itself, is "written" on the central house post wood, or on a stone: OMBALAHYLIKE A HILL IN IMERINA, GROWING ON THE MOUNTAINSIDE, OR CARVED ON A STONE; THERE IS A STRUCTURE LIKE A HOUSE, BLESSED BY THE MOON ON THE EARTH, BEHOLD THE MIGHTY OMBALAHYSTRONG LIKE ITS HORNS. LAND, OH LAND, WHAT DO YOU HIDE WITHIN YOUR BOUNDARIES? PERHAPS ITS FRIEND HAS NO STRUCTURE, AND IS RED LIKE THE FRUIT, IT, MASTER OF UNPOPULATED LAND? OR ITS ANCESTOR DEFEATED BY THE FIELD, DRIVEN TO THE MOUNTAINS, WANDERING WITH BOASTFUL PRIDE, TO BE KILLED AS A ROYAL OFFERING? THE OX IN RABEARIVELO'S POETRY IS TROUBLING: IT HAS NO STRUCTURE, HE SAYS, RED LIKE THE FRUIT, AND ESPECIALLY, MASTER OF UNPOPULATED LAND. WILD OX, NO STRUCTURE... BAREA? THE FAMOUS OX, THE SACRIFICIAL OX, OFFERED EVERY TENDROMBOHITRA TWICE, HOWEVER, DURING THE ROYAL PERIOD, MOST FAMOUS FOR ITS OFFERING STRUCTURE: IF THE OX "SAW" RALAMBO, IT WAS THE BLOOD OF THE JAMOKA'S OFFERING STRUCTURE THAT MOVED HIM AND FED THOSE WHO MIGHT HAVE BEEN HINDU BEFORE... THE WHITE OX I DARE TO CALL IT: WHITE OX, LIKE AN ARAB, A MALE LYING IN THE LIGHT OF THE ENCLOSURE, YET NEVER SAW ITS HORNS SHARPENED THERE; BUT NOW THE FRUIT OF THE LAND IS BORN FROM THE SIGHT OF THE NIGHT, AND THE MOON CIRCLES AROUND IT LIKE A STONE OF FEMALE CATTLE, AND ITS EYES SHINE AND SEEM STRONGER THAN THE WILD CATTLE, AND THE OX IS WHAT SLEEPS IN OUR KAINTSIKA HERE THE OX IS STILL COUNTED, LIVING ON LAND, WITH NO PEOPLE. "PASTURE SIGHING IN THE EVENING," "CHILD OF LIGHT," "WINE OF THE GLITTERING SIGHT": THIS WHITE OX, PERHAPS A BLIND OX, A WHITE-EYED OX? RABEARIVELO'S WRITING IN THE POETRY COLLECTIONS "SARI-NOFY, PRESQUE SONGES" (1934) AND "NADIKA TAMIN'NY ALINA, TRADUIT DE LA NUIT" (1935) IS NOT UNUSUAL, FOR IT DOES NOT FIGHT BUT FOLLOWS THE TRADITION OF HAINTENY. FOR THE PLEASURE OF THE EAR, READ ALOUD, LET IT RESOUND, THIS FOLLOWING POEM, FOR YOU WILL TRULY HEAR THE SOUND OF FRUIT PICKED IN THE NIGHT GARDEN AND YOU WILL IMAGINE THAT DARK BLUE MAIDEN WITH TREMBLING SKIN: BIRTH OF DAY HAVE YOU EVER SEEN THE EVIL MANGOES, THE FRUIT-SCATTERING MANGOES, IN THE NIGHT GARDEN? BEHOLD THEM RETURNING FROM THERE, YES ON THE EASTERN PATH, STRETCHED ROPE-LIKE: BENDING DOWN THEIR ENTIRE BODIES, LIKE A CHILD RAISED BY CATTLE BEFORE. Nasolo-Valiavo Andriamihaja