Hieroglyphic transcription of the original hieratic text is done with reference to the hieratic as published in Jéquier 1911 as well as the hieroglyphic transcriptions given in Gardiner 1946 and Allen 2015 (but with differences in treating the hieratic). Transliteration and translation are my own, but with occasional consultation of Gardiner 1946, Allen 2015, Toth 2013, Federn 1950, Lichtheim 1975, and Simpson 2003 where interpretation was difficult or ambiguous. Since this translation is made for use in Wiktionary quotations, it errs more on the side of being literal than literary.
The line breaks here are made for convenience, but comments of numbers in the wiki markup of the hieroglyphic text indicate the original line numbering.
One who is averted of face against feeding the heart (i.e. one who doesn’t indulge himself), the harsh man has to be more kindly to him than his (own) mother.[4]
as imperative (j)m: ‘…the place of the contented man is broad. Don’t speak!’ The first clause can also be interpreted in two different ways. If
represents the preposition n, then ‘The tent is open to the quiet man’; but if it represents the genitival adjective n(j), then ‘The tent of the quiet man is open’. The first interpretation is more appealing semantically, but the second is favored by parallelism with the following clause.
^ Or alternatively, taking zp to mean ‘occasion’ rather than ‘misdeed’ here, and the second clause as independent: ‘Knives are sharp against the man who transgresses the path; there is no quick advance except at its proper time.’ It is unclear, however, if zp ever has the sense of ‘proper time for something’.
^ The latter part of this sentence is ambiguous and can be interpreted in numerous ways. Both swꜣtr(“(when) the proper time passes”) and smḫ.n.fwstnẖtmpr.sn(“he has forgotten/having forgotten…, etc.”) may be taken either as adverbial clauses (as rendered here) or main clauses. Furthermore, if wstn is taken as a participle rather than a relative form, the phrase it introduces could mean ‘he whose belly roams free at home’ rather than ‘those in whose house his belly roams free’; in this case the preceding perfect verb form smḫ.n demands a different interpretation. One possible solution is to read it with a counterfactual meaning ‘would that he forgot…’ instead of ‘he has forgotten…’; this is substantially the tack taken in Simpson 2003, The Literature of Ancient Egypt. Such counterfactual uses of the bare perfect are, however, rare. Another solution is that taken in Allen 2015, Middle Egyptian Literature, who reinterprets smḫ.n.f as smḫnf(“those forget…”), taking nf as a pronoun referring to the “multitude” mentioned several sentences prior. This proposed antecedent is, however, far enough removed as to make such an interpretation doubtful.
^ The beginning of this passage, encompassing the glyphs
, seems corrupt and has been emended in various ways. Gardiner takes it as an otherwise unattested word *ḫtr(“to be powerless”) and the entire passage as ḫtr.n ḥr r dfꜣ jb(“the face is powerless(?) over against one stolid(?)”). Allen restores it as ḫrtwr, as given here, based on the determinatives (with the assumption that the scribe forgot a
). Lichtheim, following Feder, reads ḫrr(“gentle/meek”) and considers dfꜣ-jb to mean something like ‘timidity, slowness’, reading the whole as ‘He who is gentle, even timid…’.
^ Or ‘setting it on their bellies’, i.e. holding the scroll in front of them to read? Either interpretation is possible; one is clearer semantically, but the other is supported by parallelism with the following sentence.
^ If the end of this sentence is instead a perfect verb ending, mjn.n.f, it could read ‘the Dual King Huni, he moored (i.e. died).’ Allen prefers the stative, as given here, for reasons of the verb’s intransitivity.
Allen, James Peter (2015) Middle Egyptian Literature: Eight Literary Works of the Middle Kingdom, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, pages 161–167
Gardiner, Alan (1946) “Instruction Addressed to Kagemni and His Brethren” in The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, volume 32, pages 71–74
Jéquier, Gustave (1911) Le Papyrus Prisse et ses variantes. Paris: Librairie Paul Geuthner, plate 1
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