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Sunday, August 20, 2006

We Have Roots

Moved on! Check TheCairoCalls

I linked to the story of the Eloquent Peasant in the last post. It seems that it is very telling of Egyptian nature. To an uncanny degree.

Here the peasant is trying to implore some Chief to help him get back his stolen donkeys:
Chief steward, my lord, you are greatest of the great, you are guide of all that which is not and which is. When you embark on the sea of truth, that you may go sailing upon it, then shall not the.........strip away your sail, then your ship shall not remain fast, then shall no misfortune happen to your mast then shall your spars not be broken, then shall you not be stranded---if you run fast aground, the waves shall not break upon you, then you shall not taste the impurities of the river, then you shall not behold the face of fear, the shy fish shall come to you, and you shall capture the fat birds. For you are the father of the orphan, the husband of the widow, the brother of the desolate, the garment of the motherless. Let me place your name in this land higher than all good laws: you guide without avarice, you great one free from meanness, who destroys deceit, who creates truthfulness. Throw the evil to the ground. I will speak hear me. Do justice, O you praised one, whom the praised ones praise. Remove my oppression: behold, I have a heavy weight to carry; behold, I am troubled of soul; examine me, I am in sorrow.
Classic ass-kissing, huh?
Impressed by his eloquence, officials keep passing the man around (typical). On his eighth encounter with an official, the man snaps out, and gives this very impressive speech, which, in a typical Egyptian fashion, is said in desperation, rather than defiance or courage:
Chief steward, my lord, man falls on account of............ Greed is absent from a good merchant. His good commerce is......... Your heart is greedy, it does not become you. You despoil: this is not praiseworthy for you.........Your daily rations are in your house; your body is well filled. The officers, who are set as a protection against injustice,---a curse to the shameless are these officers, who are set as a bulwark against lies. Fear of you has not deterred me from supplicating you; if you think so, you have not known my heart. The Silent one, who turns to report to you his difficulties, is not afraid to present them to you. Your real estate is in the country, your bread is on your estate, your food is in the storehouse. Your officials give to you and you take it. Are you, then, not a robber? They plow for you......... for you to the plots of arable land. Do the truth for the sake of the Lord of Truth.You reed of a scribe, you roll of a book, you palette, you god Thoth, you ought to keep yourself far removed from injustice. You virtuous one, you should be virtuous, you virtuous one, you should be really virtuous. Further, truth is true to eternity. She goes with those who perform her to the region of the dead. He will be laid in the coffin and committed to the earth; ---his name will not perish from the earth, but men will remember him on account of his property: so runs the right interpretation of the divine word.
"Does it then happen that the scales stand aslant? Or is it thinkable that the scales incline to one side? Behold, if I come not, if another comes, then you host opportunity to speak as one who answers, as one who addresses the silent, as one who responds to him who has not spoken to you. You have not been.........; You have not been sick. You have not fled, you have not departed. But you have not yet granted me any reply to this beautiful word which comes from the mouth of the sun-god himself: >Speak the truth; do the truth: for it is great, it is mighty, it is everlasting. It will obtain for you merit, and will lead you to veneration.' For does the scale stand aslant? It is their scale-pans that bear the objects, and in just scales there is no.............. wanting

At that point, I think the Chief either felt guilty, or something in the peasant words touched him in a deep way, so he acted to get back the peasant's goods.
To which the peasant replied:
I live because I eat of your bread and drink your beer forever.

Heheehehe, typical!

This post is also posted at TheEgyptian. An attempt at collobrative blogging. Would appreciate your input!

Moved on!

7 Comments:

very interesting post

By Blogger La Gitana, at August 22, 2006 1:03 AM  

I think you miss the point here. In the peasant's powerlessness in the face of injustice, he is eloquently lecturing the official on what he ought to be...some of these taken from the confessions which the soul is expected to declare before the gods upon entering the afterlife:

For you are the father of the orphan, the husband of the widow, the brother of the desolate, the garment of the motherless. Let me place your name in this land higher than all good laws: you guide without avarice, you great one free from meanness, who destroys deceit, who creates truthfulness. Throw the evil to the ground. I will speak hear me...

More directly he then says...

Do justice, O you praised one, whom the praised ones praise. Remove my oppression: behold, I have a heavy weight to carry; behold, I am troubled of soul; examine me, I am in sorrow.

I don't see where there's any ass kissing in this matter, and the official let him carry on to hear more and more of his good words...the moral of this classic piece of literature is to serve what officialdom ought to be, what injustice itself can be, and above all a salute to the wisdom of this powerless yet brilliant and eloquent peasant, who is the working force of the Egyptian system of government...thus striking a brilliant balance in the whole, and this is what the enduring Egyptian civilzation was all about.

Seneferu

By Anonymous Anonymous, at August 23, 2006 8:59 AM  

First of all, the factthat I quoted the story twice in two posts shows how much I admire it. And i agree with you that it shows the elequoency of the peasent, and it shows how he is lecturing the official in an indirect way.
But don't let your (justified) pride in ancient Egyptians deter you from reading the story in a critical eye. The officials kept sending the guy around without solving his problem. The system did injustice to the peasent. And he himself acknowledged that : "But you have not yet granted me any reply to this beautiful word which comes from the mouth of the sun-god himself: >Speak the truth; do the truth: for it is great, it is mighty, it is everlasting. It will obtain for you merit, and will lead you to veneration"
And once the official granted him his right, he forgot everything about the injustice he suffered: "I live because I eat of your bread and drink your beer forever."..even though he only granted him the things which he owned in the first place.
Of course thats better than today's Egypt, where that peasent, how elequont he will be, will always recieve a "3ady 3alena bokra" (pass again tomorrow) reply, but the idea of this post is not political. It is about how the Egyptian charachter had always been submissive.
And if you think that just the act of talking, however elequon this talking is, is the opposite of submission, then there is a real problem.

One last point: "and this is what the enduring Egyptian civilzation was all about"...how does that works out..seriously

By Blogger TB, at August 23, 2006 10:17 AM  

The key here is in submissive resilience as you yourself pointed out in your own post, which was really nice by the way. I would choose the action of this peasant over all the buffoons of the current Egyptian opposition combined, at least he has something constructive to add rather than just be a good for nothing chanter of "yasqut yasqut Hosni Mubarak" while waving a banner of a tyrant like Nasser. You have to understand that the Egyptian system was one based on stability, it's opposite and arch enemy being the forces of chaos. All yet the revolutionary force was this concept of Justice and maintaining the balance of the Egyptian ecosystem which kept the heart of the Egyptian civilization so beating and alive.

Think of it this way: in that age where there was no vote for the peasant, it was this pedestal of a moral code of society which empowered him in the face of injustice, and acted as the go between him and his superiors.

As for the official passing him on as "foot 3aleyna bokra", ignoring him and the rest of your following impression, I think you're deducing this from your own post; go back to the link and read the tale again in it's entirety. The complete opposite ensued:

[Barton: Meruitensi is so pleased with the eloquence of the peasant that he passed him on to another officer and he to still another until he came before the king. Altogether the peasant made nine addresses. His eighth address follows...]

Rather than silence the peasant, the chief steward had him speak more and more, say as a 7aneen to goal which ought to be, yet which according to the injustice done to the peasant, and as recorded in detail in this story, is naturally imperfect and needs to be maintained. Notice that it was learned officialdom which taught this tale to the young students in scribe school, not the illiterate peasant who did so.

Read how the story actually concludes...

Then said the chief steward, Meruitensi: "Come out here............" Then he caused them to bring, written on a new roll, all the addresses of these days. The chief steward sent them to his majesty, the king of Upper and Lower Egypt, Neb-kau-re, the blessed, and they were more agreeable to the heart of his majesty than all that was in his land. His majesty said, "Pass sentence yourself my beloved son!" Then the chief steward, Meruitensi, caused two servants to go and bring a list of the household of Dehuti-necht from the government office, and his possessions were six persons, with a selection from his.........., from his barley, from his spelt, from his asses, from his swine, from his..........

As you and the editor may conclude:

[Barton: From this point on only a few words of the tale can be made out, but it appears from these that the goods selected from the estate of Dehuti-necht were given to the peasant and he was sent home rejoicing.]

I speak poetry in praise of these people, but, hey, they deserve it.

One last point: "and this is what the enduring Egyptian civilzation was all about"...how does that works out..seriously

It endured for thousands of years longer than any civilization known to earth. This balance is of course now lopsided...can we succeed in putting it back on track?

Seneferu

By Anonymous Anonymous, at August 23, 2006 6:58 PM  

I agree with ur every point...nice comment..
2 comments:
1-I said this incident is better than "foot 3alena bokra", not the same as
2-I was just wondering who can you say enduring and was at the same time. I just felt it shows a certain confusion ppl have; this great Egyptian civilization endured, but is no longer around. We have to admit that, to be able to change it

By Blogger TB, at August 24, 2006 10:37 AM  

eh..."ta7t el anqaad", so to speak:) Which brings us back to the very first point you made in the beginning of your post; the uncanny resemblance you see between the Egyptians then and now.

I consciously changed the "is" to "was" before submitting the comment...but the enduring part and the "is" before that..I suspect the patient is still alive. He has resiliently survived in different ways.

You're right about the foot 3aleyna bokra part, I noticed that only after I posted.

Seneferu

By Anonymous Anonymous, at August 24, 2006 9:26 PM  

This was a lovely bllog post

By Anonymous Julia, at January 12, 2024 8:40 PM  

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