This discussion brings to mind the small volume of poems that Pound and
his son in law produced as translations from ancient Egyptian Love poems.
I have a blue bound copy of that work, but have never entered into a
discussion about its contents with anyone. Anyone else read it, have an
opinion on it? Know anything about its creation?

> Charles
>
> As you note there were several Khatis during the middle kingdom,
> however, EP pretty well tells us which one he, or more probably Boris,
> thought wrote the "Instruction to Merikeri".
>
> Twice in the Canto Pound gives the King's birth name in a cartouche and
> each time he precedes it with the hieroglyphic phrase "son of Ra".
> Meribra Khety of the ninth dynasty was the first king to use this
> phrase and his cartouche is exactly as Pound renders it in the Canto.
> Page 50 of Stephen Quirke's "Who were the Pharaohs? A History of Their
> Names With a List of Cartouches" gives both Meribra Khety's throne name
> cartouche and birth name cartouche.   He also lists Merykara's birth
> name cartouche.  Merykara is Quirke's rendering of Merikeri.
>
> Clayton in "Chronicles of the Pharaohs" page 70 also lists both of
> Khety's (Clayton's spelling) cartouches and the Merkare (his rendering
> of Merikeri) cartouche.  Clayton thinks that both Khety and Merikare
> were 9th dynasty kings and that Merikare was probably the son of Khaty.
>
> I am interested in your translation of the Egyptian "pet" as "heaven".
> This is in keeping with Gardiner but Gardiner caveats his translation
> with a "?".  "Heaven" is sort of a one word short translation of "the
> highest that one can reach or perhaps attain".  Budge translates "pet"
> as "what is above, heaven".  Heaven or paradise seem very much words
> from western culture but I may be making too much of this.  I am also
> interested in your thoughts on Pound or Boris's reversal of the
> Egyptian word order.  Gardiner properly has "good disposition" as the
> subject of the sentence.  Boris changes this to having "man's paradise"
> as the subject.  This ever so slightly changes the meaning of the
> original sentence.
>
>
> Rick Seddon


      I never submitted the whole system of my
      opinions to the creed of any party of men
      whatever...where I was capable of thinking
      for myself. Such an addiction is the last
      degredation of a free and moral agent. If I
      could not go to heaven but with a party, I
      would not go there at all.
            Thomas Jefferson, from Paris, 1789

Robert E. Kibler, PhD
English and Humanities
Director, Northern Plains Writing Project
Minot State University
500 University Avenue West
Minot, North Dakota 58707
tel: 701 858 3876
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