Why this now?

 

This pic is from the front of a card that I have. It was sent or given to my grandmother (Patience)by my grandfather (Peter). I am guessing that it was written around 1915 or 1916. I've had the card for years but, being in holiday mode, I decided to take a closer look at it today. The message on the front is written in Braille which I don't happen to read but my grandmother did because she was blind.

A wikipedia search using the word braille gave me the alphabet and I have been busy translating the dots into words. first off though i had to discover the right way to read the page because it wasn't obvious which was top and bottom of the page. Once that was done I was able to start to pick out words. The last word on the left hand side of the pic has three letters and it spells out 'joy'. Other words I've found are 'bless' and 'newborn'. These three words were easy. Others didn't make sense and seemed not to be spelled correctly. I read more on the wikipedia page and it seems that braille uses contractions or a kind of shorthand way of writing that people develop for their use - a bit like texting.

Previously, I'd assumed that it was a commercial card because it does have
"Christmas greetings from Broken Hill" written on it, very faintly,in small gold lettering. now i think that it also has a personal message that was written by my grandfather in Braille. it's an interesting puzzle that i'm going to work on by attempting to translate the entire message. This will mean getting a handle on the contractions used, not just replacing dots with letters of the alphabet.

I am keeping in mind that my grandfather wrote poetry and so i am expecting a rhyme or two. this has helped. I also have in mind that maybe he wasn't perfect at writing braille. this is what i have so far with gaps representing what i can't get yet:

may ev-y bless- life c -
--brl d - newborn year
leave in a vact h-r woe
nor cause to shed a tear
except - be thy w- to weep
- joy

It's an intersting puzzle. while some of the gaps seem obvious -such as in 'ev-y' i can't see the dots that represent the letter i expect to make 'every'. So, either i am missing a shorthand way of recording something, or (perhaps) my grandfather was only learning braille at the time and got it wrong. the latter explanation is appealing since i reckon that he would have only just met my grandmother at the time of writing.

may ev-y bless- life- -
inbeld - newborn year

that's better. of course, I may also hve to take into consideration my grandfather's accent when spelling words since he was fresh from Scotland when he wrote this card. hmmm

okay i think i've found a contraction. In the first line there is just the letter 'c' sitting alone. if i take that as standing for a word, then the first line reads:

may every bless- life see -
inbold - newborn year
leave in a vact hrr - woe
nor cause to shed a tear
except - be thy w to weep
- joy

I've got a couple of gaps that i can't figure out and they look like this (except smaller):
..
..
..
I think they might represent italics or some other form of emphasis because they occur before woe and before joy.


I've still a way to go but have made good progress, no?