Ancient Egyptian Poetry

[Tamino]

So, this was sparked by @Bharat Jhunjhunwala . He argued in another thread that the papyrus of Ani describes the sun god travelling to an eastern land, probably India, which is the source of creation.

I looked at the source and didn’t get it at all. But I see how one might think it, if only reading the flowery and unstructured Budge translation.
So, for those of you crazy enough to like poetry, here’s some Ancient Egyptian poetry.
I present to you:

Praising Ra when he rises in the eastern horizon of the sky

From the papyrus of Ani. A variation of spell15 of the Book of the Dead, unknown author.
Sources:
The papyrus: papyrus | British Museum
The Budge translation: Book of Dead Plate 1 (bibliotecapleyades.net)

The hymn has 3 parts with 23 verses each, and is subdivided in paragraphs of different lengths, which often show a strictly symmetrical structure.
.
Title
1 Praising Ra,
2 when he rises in the eastern horizon of the sky
3 by
4 the Osiris Ani, the scribe of the holy offerings of all the gods,
5 he says: I greet you
.
1st Part
1st adoration
1 you who come as KHEPERA,.................................is created
2 KHEPERA the creator of the gods,.....................is the creator
3 You appear, you rise................................................rises
4 illumining yout mother..........................................shines
.
5 you appear as the king of the gods..................Center: kingship
.
6 the mother NUT acts for you.............................receives protection
7 her hands perform nini.........................................receives honor
8 Manu receives you in peace...............................is received
9 MAAT embraces you at........................................is embraced
............................the two seasons of the day.
.
1st request
He may give:
1 (being) a strong Akh, who is justified........................justified
2 going out as a living Ba-Soul........................................Ba-Soul
3 to see HORACHTY.................................................Center: seeing the sun god
4 for the Ka-Soul of the Osiris, the scribe ANI...........Ka-soul
5 justified before OSIRIS.....................................................justified
.
2nd adoration
He says........................................................................................3 realms:
1 Oh all gods of the Temple of the Ba...........................Netherworld: balance and offerings
2 ..............who hold sky and earth in balance
3 ...............who give the Ka-Soul offerings
.
4 TA-TENEN, the one.................................................................................................................Earth: creation of all things
5 ..............who made all people and the primordial gods
6 ...............the south side, the north side, the west land and the east land
.
7 give praise to RA, lord of the sky..................................................................Sky: Kingship
8 ...............the ruler, may he live, be whole and healthy
9 ................the creator of the gods

 

[Tamino]

2nd part
3rd adoration
1..praise you him
2..............in his beautiful form
3..............in his appearance
4..............in his Andjet-boat
5..the ones above praise you
6..the ones below praise you
.

7..it write for you THOTH and MAAT​

8..they give you every day
.
9 ...your serpent-enemy (is) into the flame
10..the serpent-rebel is fallen,
11..his arms bound
12..Ra has taken away his legs
13..the serpent-children, the weary ones:
14..they do not exist

4th adoration
1 The House of the Aged One is in festival,........................................... joy - specific
2 and the voices of those rejoicing are in the Great Place............... joy - specific
3 The gods rejoice............................................................................................. joy - general
.................................when they see
.
4 Ra in his appearance, .....................................................................................Ra shining
5 his beams flood the lands with light.........................................................Ra shining

6 The majesty of this noble god setteth proceeds,................................Ra’s journey
7 he has joined the land of Manu;.................................................................Ra’s journey

8 the earth becometh light at his birth each day;....................................Ra shining

9 he has reached the place of yesterday.....................................................Ra’s journey

 

[Tamino]

3rd Part
request for boons
General/summary of previous
1 May you be at peace for me when I see your beauty.
2 Let me proceed above the earth.
3 Let me smite the *** and dismemer the Sebiu-serpent.
4 Let me destroy A/pep in his moment
Travelling in sun boat:
5.......................Let me behold the Abtu-Fish at his season,
6.......................her Int-fish comes into being, the Inet-Boat in its lake.
7 ......................Let me behold Horus when he does steering
8.......................Thoth and the goddess Maat on both his sides.
9.......................Let me receive the tow-rope in the Sektet Boat,
10......................and the rope at the stern in the Andjet-Boat.
Center: seeing sun and moon
11........................................He may give the seeing of the Aten
12...................................................and a sight of Ah (the Moon)
13...................................................not ceasing every day.
Receiving boons for the soul
14 .......................Let the Ba-soul come forth and be striding
15........................ to every place he likes
16 ........................Let my name be called out,
17.........................let it be found on the tablet of the installation of offerings
18 ........................Let be given to me sepulchral offerings,
19.........................as to those who are in the following of Horus.
General/summary
20 Let there be prepared for me a seat in the Boat of the Sun
21 on the day wheron the god saileth.
22 Let me be received in the presence of Osiris
23 in the Land of Truth-speaking

Closing:
For the Ka-soul of the Osiris Ani

 

[Tamino]

Analysis:

The title names it as a hymn to Ra „when he rises at the eastern horizon“.

The Text is structured on 3 equal parts, with 23 verses each.
The first part is made of 2 pretty standard adorations, with a request for the Ka of Ani slipped in between.

The first adoration is structure symmetrical around a verse about kingship. The change from the sun god acting (creating, shining) to the sun god being honored and received can be understood to represent the sun’s cycle. It could also reflect the two sides of kingship: Acting beneficiently on the one hand and receiving protection and honor on the other.

Then 5 verses are slipped in that are similar to an offering formula, containing the standard „he may give“, and asking for fairly standard boons: being a powerful Akh, and for the Ba-soul to live and move. The fact that Re-Harakhte is mentioned makes the formula fit into the context of the hymn. The verses 4 and 5 create an interesting symmetry to the first to, mirroring the Ba-soul with the Ka-soul and repeating „justified“ in 1 and 5.

The second adoration has 9 verses, like the first. But instead of a symmetrical structure, it is clearly sorted into a 3x3. 3 symbolizes multitude in Egyptian, even more if it is 3 times 3. The idea of a great number is reflected in the content, which encompasses the 3 realms.

The Netherworld, represented by the temple of the Ba-soul, is concerned with justice and offerings. The earth, represented by the primordial earth god Tatenen, is concerned with the creation of all beings. It uses an unusual word for people, „temu“, which is derived from „tem“, being complete. Apart from the people, also the gods and the cardinal directions are mentioned, driving home the idea of „all“ being created from „one“.
The last triplet talks about Ra in the sky, is concerned with kingship, but also names him a creator again.


The second part of the text starts with a complex 14 verse arrangement.

6 verses about Ra reveiving praise in his appearance, by those above and below, connect nicely to the previous adoration. In this part, the Andjet-boat and Ra’s brilliant appearance are mentioned as allusions to daytime, while the „beautiful form“ alludes to nighttime.

The center of the arragement names Maat and Thoth. The scribe of the goods and the force of justice and balance are powerful beings: They can assign the proper timespans to a ruler by writing the name into the leaves of the Ished-tree, and in the case of the sund god, the of course give him the eternal rulership of every day.

The 6 verses at the end of the arragement deal with the destruction of enemies. It’s a bit ambiguous whether any serpents are mentioned here… the verses use the sign of a snake speared by knifes as a determinative sign for terms such as enemy, son and rebel. This is somewhat logical, since the greatest enemy of Ra has serpent form.

Finally, there’s another 9 verse arrangement that has 3 topics: again, praising Ra, then Ra’s light and brilliance, and thirdly there are verses mentioning Ra’s movement, completing a kind of mini sun cycle by proceeding across the sky, joining with the horizon and reaching the same place as yesterday.

The last part of the text changes in tone. Instead of praising Ra, it contains a long list of boons and requests that Ani hopes to receive. It’s sorted into a 10-3-10 structure.

The first 10 verses, arranged in 5 pairs, mostly concern themselves with Ani wanting to be among the divine beings who travel with the sun god in his boat. The first to pairs deal with seeing Ra as he travels and helping to destroy the enemies, which picks up topics from a previous adoration. The other three are focused on travelling in the sun barque, seeing some sacred fish who accompany the sun boat, seeing the gods who steer the boat and helping by holding the tow ropes.

Then there’s a central triplet, with the wish to see the sun and moon every day, which has an interesting parallel to the central verse in the first request, in the first part, which is also about „seeing Ra-Harakhty“.

The last 10 verses are again arranged in 5 pairs. Three go more into the traditional topics of the offering formula: wanting the Ba-soul to move freely, having their name on the list to receive offerings, receiving offerings. The last two pairs summarize the main wishes of the dead person: travelling with Ra and being received by Osiris.