The heart of the ship was the first object with strange writing on it that was seen on "Smallville." Jonathan showed it to Clark in "Pilot" when he told his son about his extraterrestrial origins for the first time. The heart as it appeared in "Pilot:"
Another view of the original ship's heart:
The writing, in this form, is not intelligible. It is not Kryptonian, and no exact translation of this particular writing was ever provided. As Jonathan explained to Clark in "Pilot," "I tried to decipher it for years, but... It's not written in any language known to man."
The heart was different in later episodes than in "Pilot," similar to the ship itself. A shot of the post-"Pilot" heart:
It's hard to figure out exactly what the writing on the ship's heart says. Not only is the picture out of focus, but some of the symbols don't appear to be letters of the Kryptonian alphabet.
Finally, here's a shot of Clark inserting the ship's heart into a slot on the ship in "Rosetta." This opened the ship and provided Clark with more information about his origins.
