3
" THE INSTRUCTION OF PTAHHOTEP
Part III
Report your commission without faltering,
Give your advice in your master’s council.
If he is fluent in his speech,
It will not be hard for the envoy to report,
Nor will he be answered, "Who is he to know it ?”
As to the master, his affairs will fail
If he plans to punish him for it.
He should be silent upon (hearing): "I have told.”
If you are a man who leads.
Whose authority reaches wide,
You should do outstanding things,
Remember the day that comes after.
No strife will occur in the midst of honors,
But where the crocodile enters hatred arises.
If you are a man who leads.
Listen calmly to the speech of one who pleads;
Don’t stop him from purging his body
Of that which he planned to tell.
A man in distress wants to pour out his heart
More than that his case be won.
About him who stops a plea
One says: “Why does he reject it ?”
Not all one pleads for can be granted,
But a good hearing soothes the heart.
If you want friendship to endure
In the house you enter
As master, brother, or friend,
In whatever place you enter,
Beware of approaching the women!
Unhappy is the place where it is done.
Unwelcome is he who intrudes on them.
A thousand men are turned away from their good:
A short moment like a dream,
Then death comes for having known them.
Poor advice is “shoot the opponent,”
When one goes to do it the heart rejects it.
He who fails through lust of them,
No affair of his can prosper.
If you want a perfect conduct,
To be free from every evil,
Guard against the vice of greed:
A grievous sickness without cure,
There is no treatment for it.
It embroils fathers, mothers,
And the brothers of the mother,
It parts wife from husband;
It is a compound of all evils,
A bundle of all hateful things.
That man endures whose rule is rightness,
Who walks a straight line;
He will make a will by it,
The greedy has no tomb.
Do not be greedy in the division.
Do not covet more than your share;
Do not be greedy toward your kin.
The mild has a greater claim than the harsh.
Poor is he who shuns his kin,
He is deprived of 'interchange'
Even a little of what is craved
Turns a quarreler into an amiable man.
When you prosper and found your house,
And love your wife with ardor,
Fill her belly, clothe her back,
Ointment soothes her body.
Gladden her heart as long as you live,
She is a fertile held for her lord.
Do not contend with her in court,
Keep her from power, restrain her —
Her eye is her storm when she gazes —
Thus will you make her stay in your house.
Sustain your friends with what you have,
You have it by the grace of god;
Of him who fails to sustain his friends
One says, “a selfish ka".
One plans the morrow but knows not what will be,
The ( right) ka is the ka by which one is sustained.
If praiseworthy deeds are done,
Friends will say, “welcome!”
One does not bring supplies to town,
One brings friends when there is need.
Do not repeat calumny.
Nor should you listen to it,
It is the spouting of the hot-bellied.
Report a thing observed, not heard,
If it is negligible, don’t say anything.
He who is before you recognizes worth.
lf a seizure is ordered and carried out,
Hatred will arise against him who seizes;
Calumny is like a dream against which one covers the face.
If you are a man of worth,
Who sits in his master’s council.
Concentrate on excellence,
Your silence is better than chatter.
Speak when you know you have a solution,
It is the skilled who should speak in council;
Speaking is harder than all other work.
He who understands it makes it serve. "
― , Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms
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" Cleanse yourself before your (own) eyes,
Lest another cleanse you.
When you prosper, found your household,
Take a hearty wife, a son will be born you.
It is for the son you build a house,
When you make a place for yourself.
Make good your dwelling in the graveyard,
Make worthy your station in the West.
Given that death humbles us,
Given that life exalts us,
The house of death is for life.
Seek for yourself well-watered fields,
Choose for him, a plot among your fields,
Well-watered every year.
He profits you more than your own son,
Prefer him even to your [heir].
The Instruction of Prince Hardjedef "
― , Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms
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" See, the Serpent is taken from its hole,
The secrets of Egypt's kings are bared.
See, the residence is fearful from want.
Men stir up strife unopposed.
See, the land is tied up in gangs,
The coward is emboldened to seize his goods.
See, the Serpent the dead.
He who could not make a coffin owns a tomb.
See, those who owned tombs are cast on high ground,
He who could not make a grave owns a treasury.
See now, the transformations of people,
He who did not build a hut is an owner of coffers. "
― , Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms
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" THE INSTRUCTION OF PTAHHOTEP
Part V
Know your helpers, then you prosper,
Don’t be mean toward your friends,
They are one’s watered field,
And greater then one’s riches.
For what belongs to one belongs to another.
The character of a son-of-man is profit to him;
Good nature is a memorial,
Punish firmly, chastise soundly;
Then repression of crime becomes an example;
Punishment except for crime
Turns the complainer into an enemy.
If you take to wife a Spnt
Who is joyful and known by her town,
If she is fickle and likes the moment.
Do not reject her, let her eat, "
― , Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms
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" THE INSTRUCTION OF PTAHHOTEP
Epilogue
Part II
The fool who does not hear,
He can do nothing at all;
He sees knowledge in ignorance,
Usefulness in harmfulness.
He does all that one detests
And is blamed for it each day;
He lives on that by which one dies.
His food is distortion of speech.
His sort is known to the officials,
Who say: "A living death each day.”
One passes over his doings,
Because of his many daily troubles.
A son who hears is a follower of Horus,
It goes well with him when he has heard.
When he is old has reached veneration.
He will speak likewise to his children,
Renewing the teaching of his father.
Every man teaches as he acts,
He will speak to the children,
So that they will speak to their children:
Set an example, don’t give offense,
If justice stands firm your children will live.
As to the first who gets into trouble,
When they see (it) people will say:
“That is just like him.”
And will say to what they hear:
"That’s just like him too.”
To see everyone is to satisfy the many,
Riches are useless without them.
Don’t take a word and then bring it back,
Don’t put one thing in place of another.
Beware of loosening the cords in you,
Lest a wise man say:
“Listen, if you want to endure in the mouth of the hearers.
Speak after you have mastered the craft!”
If you speak to good purpose.
All your affairs will be in place.
Conceal your heart, control your mouth.
Then you will be known among the officials;
Be quite exact before your lord.
Act so that one will say to him: "He’s the son of that one.”
And those who hear it will say:
“Blessed is he to whom he was born!”
Be deliberate when you speak,
So as to say things that count;
Then the officials who listen will say:
“How good is what comes from his mouth!”
Act so that your lord will say of you:
“How good is he whom his father taught;
When he came forth from his body.
He told him all that was in (his) mind,
And he does even more than he was told,”
Lo, the good son, the gift of god,
Exceeds what is told him by his lord,
He will do right when his heart is straight.
As you succeed me, sound in your body.
The king content with all that was done.
May you obtain (many) years of life!
Not small is what I did on earth,
I had one hundred and ten years of life
As gift of the king,
Honors exceeding those of the ancestors,
By doing justice for the king.
Until the state of veneration! "
― , Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms
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" I have come from my town,
I have descended from my nome,
I have done justice for its lord,
I have satisfied him with what he loves.
I spoke truly, I did right,
I spoke fairly, I repeated fairly,
I seized the right moment,
So as to stand well with people.
I judged between two so as to content them,
I rescued the weak from one stronger than he
I gave bread to the hungry, clothes (to the naked),
I brought the boatless to land.
I buried him who had no son,
I made a boat for him who lacked one.
I respected my father, I pleased my mother.
I raised their children.
So says he whose nickname is Sheshi.
INSCRIPTION OF NEFER-SESHEM-RE CALLED SHESHI "
― , Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms
20
" THE INSTRUCTION OF PTAHHOTEP
Instruction of the Mayor of the city, the Vizier Ptahhotep, under the Majesty of King Isesi, who lives for all eternity. The mayor of the city, the vizier Ptahhotep, said:
O king, my lord!
Age is here, old age arrived.
Feebleness came, weakness grows,
Childtike one sleeps all day.
Eyes are dim, ears deaf.
Strength is waning through weariness,
The mouth, silenced, speaks not,
The heart, void, recalls not the past,
The bones ache throughout.
Good has become evil, all taste is gone,
What age does to people is evil in everything.
The nose, clogged, breathes not,
Painful are standing and sitting.
May this servant be ordered to make a staff of old age,
So as to teil him the words of those who heard,
The ways of the ancestors,
Who have listened to the gods.
May such be done for you.
So that strife may be banned from the people,
And the Two Shores may serve you!
Said the majesty of this god:
Instruct him then in the sayings of the past,
May he become a model for the children of the great,
May obedience enter him,
And the devotion of him who speaks to him,
No one is born wise.
Beginning of the formulations of excellent discourse spoken by the Prince, Count, God's Father, God's beloved, Eldest Son of the King, of his body, Mayor of the city and Vizier, Ptahhotep, in instructing the ignorant in knowledge and in the standard of excellent discourse, as profit for him who will hear, as woe to him who would neglect them. He spoke to his son:
Don’t be proud of your knowledge.
Consult the ignorant and the wise;
The limits of art are not reached,
No artist’s skills are perfect;
Good speech is more hidden than greenstone,
Yet may be found among maids at the grindstones.
If you meet a disputant in action,
A powerful man, superior to you.
Fold your arms, bend your back,
To flout him will not make him agree with you.
Make little of the evil speech
By not opposing him while he's in action;
He will be called an ignoramus,
Your self-control will match his pile (of words).
If you meet a disputant in action
Who is your equal, on your level,
You will make your worth exceed his by silence,
While he is speaking evilly,
There will be much talk by the hearers.
Your name will be good in the mind of the magistrates.
If you meet a disputant in action,
A poor man, not your equal.
Do not attack him because he is weak,
Let him alone, he will confute himself.
Do not answer him to relieve your heart,
Do not vent yourself against your opponent,
Wretched is he who injures a poor man,
One will wish to do what you desire.
You will beat him through the magistrates’ reproof.
If you are a man who leads,
Who controls the affairs of the many,
Seek out every beneficent deed,
That your conduct may be blameless.
Great is justice, lasting in effect,
Unchallenged since the time of Osiris.
One punishes the transgressor of laws,
Though the greedy overlooks this;
Baseness may seize riches,
Yet crime never lands its wares;
In the end it is justice that lasts,
Man says: “It is my father's ground.”
Do not scheme against people,
God punishes accordingly:
If a man says: “I shall live by it,”
He will lack bread for his mouth.
If a man says: “I shall be rich'
He will have to say: “My cleverness has snared me.”
If he says: “I will snare for myself,”
He will be unable to say: “I snared for my profit.”
If a man says: "I will rob someone,”
He will end being given to a stranger.
People’s schemes do not prevail,
God’s command is what prevails;
Live then in the midst of peace,
What they give comes by itself. "
― , Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms
