Rick,
    In his Dictionary of Hieroglyphics Budge includes a list of mean old
Pharaoh's-
    "97. Ab-meri-Ra (Meri-ka-ra I?) Khati (Axthoes [Gk.])" Here follows the
cartouche Pound uses.
    "[Names of five kings wanting here.]
    100. Uah-ka-Ra I Khati II" Here again the same cartouche used in Canto
93.
    101. Ka-meri-Ra II"

    Thank you for pointing to Canto 93. There before my very eyes was the
hieroglyphic quote, and the first word by the way is PET which does mean
"heaven/sky" for variations of the same denote the four cardinal directions
above. "PET" can be found on p. 229 of Budge.
    NFR written "nefer" is the last word of the quote, and it means "good,
pleasant, happy", etc. It is composed of a banjo-like instrument (There is
an indication that Ez played one at some time) which represents "N". A
little horned serpent is "F", and an oval mouth is "R".
    It would seem that Boris and EP follow the hieroglyphic version's word
order unless they changed this also.
    Sorry about the confusion I caused by reference to "my translation". I
meant the one I have among my references. It is by Miriam Lichtheim in
"Ancient Egyptian Literature, Vol. I The Old and Middle Kingdoms". p.99
    Heaven as looked upon as above or in the sky does not seem to me to be
all that particularly a western concept.
    Pound should have found this ancient Egyptian text to have Kung
qualities-

    "Copy your fathers, your ancestors,
    -------
    See, their words endure in books,
    Open, read them, copy their knowledge,"

Charles

----------
>From: Richard Seddon <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Canto 93
>Date: Wed, Aug 27, 2003, 12:26 AM
>

> 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