Egypt Exploration Society
The Eloquent Peasant Author(s): Alan H. Gardiner Source: The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 9, No. 1/2 (Apr., 1923), pp. 5-25 Published by: Egypt Exploration Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3853490 . Accessed: 14/09/2014 11:24 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
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5
THE ELOQUENT PEASANT BY ALAN H. GARDINER, D.LITr. AMONGthe few literary compositions which have survived from the Middle Kingdom, the tale of the Eloquent Peasant has the distinction of being one of the longest and the most complete. The two fine Berlin papyri which contain the bulk of the text comprise three hundred and seventy-eight lines, if we disregard the overlap, and except towards the end are practically free from lacunae. To this number of lines have to be added fifty-one more, from that Ramesseum papyrus which, by a miraculous chance, has restored to us the lost beginning, not only of the Peasant, but also of the story of Sinuhe. Here then, dating from a period when literary papyri are not wont to show deep-seated corruptions, we have a composition consisting of nearly four hundred and thirty lines, an absolutely invaluable source of information for the grammarian and the lexicographer. But unhappily, much of the book has resisted previous attempts at translation. Twenty years ago scholars were accustomed to stop short after the introductory narrative, the peasant's nine petitions to his judge being deemed wholly untranslatable. At that time, however, Egyptian philological studies were making rapid strides, and a young German student, Friedrich Vogelsang, had the courage to take the story as the theme for his doctoral dissertation (1904). Not many years later, in editing a photographic facsimile of the texts in collaboration with the present writer, he prefixed to it the first attempt at a complete renderingl. In this first attempt so much of the meaning was elicited with comparative certainty that Maspero was able to include a French version, here and there displaying improvements, in the fourth edition of his Contes populaires de l'Egypte ancienne. In 1913 Vogelsang published his revised translation and commentary, a valuable though by no means impeccable piece of work2. Since that date the only contributions to the subject have been a valuable review by Grapow3,three short articles of my own4,and a very free translation, based on Vogelsang and Maspero, by Sir Ernest Budge5. The new rendering which I venture to submit to the readers of this Journal is the outcome of some weeks of close study during the past summer, when an opportunity presented itself of collating the original manuscripts in Berlin. I am deeply conscious of the deficiencies of my effort, and would gladly have added a few more to the notes of interrogation which I have sprinkled so freely over it. There are whole passages where I am 1 Hieratische Papyrus aus den koniglichen Museen zu Berlin, vierter Band: Literarische Texte des Mittleren Reiches, herausgegeben von ADOLF ERMAN. 1. Die Klagen des Bauerrn, bearbeitet von F. VOGELSANG und ALAN H. GARDINER, Leipzig, 1908. 2 K. SETHE, Untersuchungen zur Geschichte und Altertumskunde Aegyptens, Band vi. Kommentar zu den Klagen des Bauern, von FRIEDRICH VOGELSANG, Leipzig, 1913. 3 Gottingische gelehrte Anzeigen, 1913, nr. 12, pp. 735-51. I have found nothing helpful in the article by LEXA, Recueil de Travaux, 34, 206-31. 4 ProC. Soc. Bibl. Arch., 35 69-74. (1913), 264-76; 36 (1915), 15-23; 6 The Literature of the Egyptians, 1914, pp. 169-84. A summary, with some quotations, in BREASTED, Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt (1912), 216-26.
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ALAN H. GARDINER
6
almost certain not to have divined the true meaning; but in offering some sort of translation even of these portions I have acted upon a principle to which I attach the greatest importance: even a wrong idea is better than no idea at all, and progress in translation can only come by presenting to the critics some definite objective to tilt at. I have been at pains to study my predecessors very closely, and may therefore hope to have avoided, as a rule, modifications of the kind which the Germans compactly call Verschlimmbesserungen. To those without knowledge of the Egyptian language some explanation why texts of this sort occasion so great difficulty may be of interest. The meaning of the large majority of the words employed is either already known, or else can be elicited through comparison with other examples; but not the precise nuances of meaning, only the kind of meaning, its general direction and its approximative emotional quality. Taking into consideration the further facts that the absence of any indication of the vowels makes the distinction between the various verb-forms very difficult, and that Egyptian dispenses almost entirely with such particles as " but " " because " " when" " though," it will become evident that texts of a purely moralizing character, where there is no concrete background against which the appropriateness of this or that rendering shows up unmistakably, must present extraordinary difficulties. The only basis we can have for preferring one rendering to another, when once the exigencies of grammar and dictionary have been satisfied-and these leave a large margin for divergencies,-is an intuitive appreciation of the trend of the ancient writer's mind. A very precarious basis, all will admit. Nevertheless, the number of moralizing texts which we now possess is not inconsiderable, and everywhere like thoughts crop up and mutually confirm one another. Some confidence that we have succeeded in fathoming an old Egyptian sentiment may often be gained by noting how well the same sentiment, expressed in different but similar words, fits into other contexts. By slow degrees we are acquiring a fair working knowledge of the psychology of these ancient folk. The tale is a simple one, and may be left to explain itself. But not so the individual sentences within it. To make these intelligible to the modern mind it would often be necessary to depart so far from literal translation as to lose all the flavour of the original. I have, with few exceptions, preferred to be literal at all hazards, and if the result be inelegant, I would point out that my purpose has been linguistic and psychological, rather than aesthetic. Those who, not unreasonably, object to footnotes will find plenty to complain of here; but the alternative, explanatory glosses interrupting the translation itself at every instant, would in my opinion have been infinitely worse. The tale of the Eloquent Peasant challenges comparison with the story of Sinuhe, not only because both texts appear to have enjoyed popularity at Thebes during the Twelfth and following Dynasties, but also because the manuscripts are the work of the same scribes and have now found a resting-place in the same museum. But whereas the simplicity of the story of Sinuhe, its conciseness, its variety of mood and its admirable felicity of expression make it a great literary masterpiece, the same praise cannot be given to the tale of the Eloquent Peasant. The narrative portions are indeed straightforward and unobjectionable, but the nine petitions addressed to Rensi are alike poverty-stricken as regards the ideas, and clumsy and turgid in their expression. The metaphors of the boat and of the balance are harped upon with nauseous insistency, and the repetition of the same words in close proximity with different meanings1 shows that the author was anything 1
Examples:
irt nwdw in B 1, 92. 100. 107; sbn, see below p. 14, n. 1; sw, B 1, 117. 119.
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THE ELOQUENT PEASANT
7
but a literary artist. It must not be supposed that the original makes any attempt to convey the natural clumsiness of speech of an ignorant peasant; on the contrary, the tale would lose its whole point if the notion that Rensi was a genuine admirer of the peasant's eloquence were thus undermined. So far as possible, my translation follows the longer Berlin text (B 1); only where this fails or is unsatisfactory are R (the Ramesseum papyrus) and B 2 (the second Berlin text) employed. INTRODUCTORYNARRATIVE.
7'herewas once a man whose name was Khunanufp, a peasant of the Sekhet Hm?iet'; and he had a wife whose name was [Ma]rye. And this peasant said to her his wife: "Behold I am going down into Egypt to [bring] food thencefor my children. Go now, measure out for me the corn which is in the barn, the remainder of [last harvest's (?)] corn." Then he measured out to her [six (?)]2 gallons of corn. And this peasant said to his wife: "Behold, [there are left over (?)]3 twenty gallons of R5 corn to (be)food for thee and thy children ; but make thou for me these six gallons of corn into bread and beerfor every day in which [I shall be travelling (?)]4. R 10 So this peasant went down into Egypt, after that he had loaded his asses with rushes, rrmt-plants, natron, salt, sticks of...... tyw, rods of Te-ehew5, leopard skins, wolf furs, R 20 bamboo (?)6, pebbles (?), tnm-plants, hprwr-plants, s?hwt, ssskwt, miswt-plants, snwt-8tones, R 30 Cb[f]w-stones, Ibsl-plants, inbi-plants, doves, nCrw-birds, wgs-birds, wbn-plants, tbsv-plants, R 35 gngnt, earth-hair, inst,--full measure of all the goodly products of the Sekhet Hmiet. And
this peasant departed southward toward Nenesu7 and arrived in the vicinity of Per-fiofi to R 40 the north of Medenes; and he found a man standing on the river-bank named Dhutnakht, the son of a man whose name was Isry, a vassal of the high steward Rensi, the son of Meru. And this Dhutnakht said, when he saw asses belonging to this peasant which were desirable in his heart: "Would that I had some potent idol9 that I might steal away the belongings of R 45 this peasant withal! " Now the house of this Dhutnakht was on the riverside path, which was
narrow and not broad, equal to (?) the breadth of a loin-cloth; and the one side of it was under water, and the other under corn. The modern Widy Natrfn (" Valley of Salt "); the old Egyptian name is identical in meaning. The traces do not suit "six," but this or some number approximating it seems needed. It is not to be imagined that the peasant withdrew from the barn more than was required for his own immediate purposes. The hitherto accepted interpretation of the number in R 5 as 2 instead of 20 (on this point see Proc. S.B.A., 14, 425) makes the peasant treat his wife with incredible meanness. 3 Restoration very doubtful; [sp] n t ? 4 Undecipherable traces; this conjecture, which is due to Maspero, seems superior to Vogelsang's " [that I may live] thereon." 5 6 Ng? depicted Bersh. ii, 16. T-lihw, the Oasis of Farafra. 7 EhnAs. This was the capital of the Ninth Dynasty later the modern Nn-nsw, Herakleopolis Magna, to which Nebkaure, the Pharaoh of our tale (B 1, 73), belonged. 8 Spiegelberg proposed (Or. Litt. Zeit., 1920, 259), on rather slender grounds, to identify Mdnt with Atfth; that town is, however,on the wrong side of the Nile for a traveller coming from the Wady Natrfn. 9 I.e. would that I had some magical means. The word "potent" is added from the duplicate in the Butler papyrus. 2
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ALAN H. GARDINER
8
And this Dhutnakht said to his servant: " Go, bring me a cloth from my house." And it R 50 was brought to him straightway. Then he stretched it over the riverside path, so that its fringe rested on the water and its hem on the corn'. Then came this peasant along the public road. And this Dhutnakht said: " Have a care, peasant; wouldst2 tread on my garments ?" B 1, 1 And this peasant said: " I will do thy pleasure; my course is a good one." So he went up higher. And this Dhutnakht said: d.. <
sic
X[[];
119.
so Gunn..
GRAPOW)reads nb c
C
,; I am very far from convinced that this reading is right; inw is
not possible. 123. 125.
' the
q
c=3
od,
121. Devaud (apud
120 end.
i seems to be corrected, ( is more probable than o.
; w has been corrupted into a form resembling
?
1.........
.
?
128. wdn 1
; the det. can hardly be r-.
131. The snake or worm at end is certain;
137 ; omit q.. ?\LLER, no} P^h~hW~not oit. 1 37. r^8. 19L.m. ; :::, nottw.k. 142. Q ~L:. MOLLER,no. 658. 141.
an erasure above it. 133. /
g
L
hb? here and in 112, 230, 274 ( t- ;
l
it looks more like i3.
_isprobable.
-. 159.
supposed I in nht is the tail off ..; the last sign can hardly be
.
. 139.
, so
143. The sign determining B 2, 30), 286 (= B 2, 46) is certainly not the ordinary . 150. ;;
t wn; so too in mrnrb278; the .
dets. of zwsw in 312. 323 are somewhat similar. 265. ;see note on 258.
i; or hw?
286. hb?-hr I
290. -
266. --. .
278. Mr'
293.
with-
. 305. In gsti the I is corrected out of r.
out @. 300. I\
321. Omit
q. m. of s at end. 323. The obscure sign doubtless represents some specific determinative of hnkw; for such a det. see NAVILLE, Todtenbutch,Cap. 125, Schlussrede, 31 (Ca). B2. '
clear traces.
3. iw si?t ssrr.f tiny traces of the signs here left unitalicized. 4. Before nfr a vertical and a horizontal sign; accordingly reading different from B 1, 251. 6. Sufficient traces to justify the reading 1.
S
iW v Xlti
[L]Cr,--
[Zj] after
;
.
10.h. C-mw
n__
9. smri ?q . ; no trace of z but a small horizontal sign (1i ?) 11. Delete n before wn; no trace. 20. The det. of dt is a -.
large curled sign, damaged, not dates; contrast B 1, 266. 25. .
....
21.
III
0 with the numeral customary except in
the papyrus to left of, not under, the signs for mrl.
-,; r 38. nm?r
35. mndt d.
36. mri
without plural strokes. 41. snm ; the wings not marked however. 46. hr I I; plural strokes like n, doubtful, as in B 1, 286. 51. O5. 56. trf. , trace. 61. spr. ; a low wide form found elsewhere, e.g. 85 top.
69. pssw k
sgdwt; m must be meant, but is a little unusual in form. 71. ,-
,
unless
sic
the supposed t belongs to preceding c
. 7.
L.__trace
. 77.
rmd Aj
and gap below it; the line may have been exceptionally long. 85. irr.k c S
see above on 61.
of n ; for form of
95. At top considerable traces, which I cannot decipher; the
suggestion bin tnm is impossible. ?
,
m
-.
97.
F
practically certain;
sic
certain certain 99. is 0 @ \-; except f~,, ,which ; highly whighly very doubtful. probable. 100. For an approximation of the det. of hwd to D, see Adn'. 8, 2. The correction in the margin is clearly m; perhaps ir hwd hr.f should be substituted for nr hwd hr:f 113. ~ after hft is here doubtless a careless writing of the very similar "enemy "-sign (MOLLER, I, 49);
see esp. Leb. 115.
119.
^
; the middle
--
has a peculiar twist
at right end, the effect of which is exaggerated by loss of fibres. 120. Vog. later rightly read ) ~l , except that he omitted plural strokes of TLa trtt. 121.
r[
]
certain. 123end. Doubtless nothing' lost aftermk. 126.
Jl^ -^-ca^--
L^\^
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t7yW
THE ELOQUENT PEASANT sic
. Then rdi.n.f c*
,
seems probable. 128.
25
P
,A; ;
may have the small cramped
sic
form seen after wsd B 2, 79. 129. m c2
w^w
highly probable, if not certain. 130.[1,]
s ufficient traces of bird and k. 131.
LI J
1[
jT^
];probably a short line. 134. Restore
$b &
[{j
the line must have been a long one,like 132. 135. , r]; ] a.. as Vog. later read. 136, 140. Considerable traces at top, not deciphered by me. 138. sMw , . 142. Almost certain ~f==~ ~-. probable; no plural strokes; then r [j][ . Ol El]
Aj~
in large sprawling forms. POSTSCRIPT.
Since the above article was written, I have become acquainted with a strange piece of evidence indicating that the tale of the Eloquent Peasant was still quite familiar to the literati of the later Theban empire. Professor Breasted recently purchased a fine limestone ostracon of Rarnesside date dealing with the well-worn theme of the idle pupil. So slothful is the latter, that he is altogether beyond help. This appears, at least, on a superficial study ~ @ s X p of the text to be the meaning of the sentences 0 [P n , X i
< S\
o~l
\\
S
*i3
|
*
91
II
o -
(verso 5-6).
rm
t2h
?
>
E1m P^ @
1 1
&V
9
St2-
/Q
The literal translation is " thou art in the case of him who said:
'thou killest, stealest away my asses, takest the lamentations from my mouth."' Here we clearly have a very inaccurate quotation of the words of the peasant in B 1, 28-9. It thus appears that the tale must have enjoyed a wide celebrity in the schools. I am indebted to my friend Professor Breasted for permission to publish this interesting reminiscence of the Middle Kingdom story.
Journ.of Egypt.Arch.ix
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