Commentary page 10

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Commentary for pWestcar, AEL Page 10, Lines 1 - 28


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Line 1 [next] [top] [prev]

SAs pw iri.n tA-wbA.y.t wn.n=s tA-a.t

[Hans van Haarst, 8/12/97; AEL Westcar P9 L28 - P10 L5] "The maidservant set off. She opened the room."

Lines 2-3 [next] [top] [prev]

aHa.n sDm.n=s xrw Hzi Sma xbi.t wAg
irr.t nb.t n n.y-sw.t m tA-a.t

[Hans van Haarst, 8/12/97; AEL Westcar P9 L28 - P10 L5]

Then she heard the noise of singing, musicmaking, dancing and jubilation ,(in short) all the things usually done for a king, in the room.
I have some difficulty with the verbform wn.n=s in L1. According to the theory of Polotsky it has to be a circumstantial or a nominal/emphatic sDm.n=f form. The emphatic sDm.n=f is not possible here because there is no adverbial adjunct that could serve as the 'vedette'. The circumstantial sDm.n=f can not act as an initial bare verbform, it has to be preceded by an article such as iw.
There remain two possibilities:
1. Consider 'wn.n=s tA at' as a circumstantial subclause which precedes the main sentence L2.
2. Consider wn.n=s as a indicative sDm.n=f.
The translation of the 1st possibility : After she had opened the room she heard... The translation of the 2nd possibility is given above. In line 3 the imperfective active participle irr.t is used to express an action that is usually done.
[G.Graham, 8/12/97; RE>AEL Westcar P9 L28 - P10 L5]

I see no difficulty with wn.n=s being circumstantial sDm.n=f, as you do below, however, because the circumstantial sDm.n=f is often translatable as "and he/she did such-and-such". So I would just say: "Setting out is what the maidservant did, and she opened the room." Or less formally: "The maidservant went out and opened the room."
Both Hzj and Sma are verbs meaning "sing" so you are right to try and differentiate them somehow so the English is varied. It is also good the way you got that habituality in for jrr.t with its gemination.

[Hans van Haarst, 9/12/97; RE>AEL Westcar P9 L28 - P10 L5]

So far as I know a circumstantial sDm.n=f in a subclause expresses time prior to the time of the main sentence. So in this case the translation would be: "The maidservant set off after she had opened the room." This is not very likely because in the next line we know which room is meant : not the room where she is now but another room. Otherwise maybe you could see the room (a.t) as a totum pro parte for door.
The other difficulty is that according to theory Egyptian sentences can not begin with a circumstantial subclause, except for some expressions of time. Otherwise wn.n=s tA a.t could be considered as a subclause preceding the main sentence aHa.n sDm.n=s ... .
That is the reason why I suggested the verbform wn.n=s to be the indicative sDm.n=f. In that case you get two sentences.

1. SAs pw ir.n tA wbA.t
2. wn.n=s tA a.t

If you translate a circumstantial sDm.n=f as "...,and she opened the room" you get a plain sentence and this is exactly the translation of an indicative verbform. So I think there are two possible solutions for this problem

A. Accept the existence of an indicative sDm.n=f
B. Accept the fact that a circumstantial verbform can precede a main sentence.

[Serge Rosmorduc, 10/12/97; RE>AEL Westcar P9 L28 - P10 L5]

An alternative to 'A' is the continuative/sequential sDm.n=f, which is perhaps simply another value for the circumstantial sDm.n=f. I think Doret wrote on this. The explanation would be more or less this : sDm.n=f is a relative tense, -- that is, it marks an aspect (acomplished) rather than a tense.
- when sDm.n=f means 'after he had heard', the reference point is the previous proposition.
- on the other hand, when it means "and he heard", the reference point is the same as the reference point of the sentence.
There is a clearer case with perfectives : iw=i stp=kwi after some initial proposition can mean either

'I having been chosen'
'after I was chosen'
'and I was chosen'

- the context deciding on the issue. Remember the passage ia.in=sn sw Sad XbA=f rd Hr ifdy m Dbt which, I think, display the two uses side by side.
On the other hand, B. is also a possibility. I think there are a few cases of such constructions.

[G. Graham, 10.12.97; RE>AEL Westcar P9 L28 - P10 L5]

Yes, I remember having discussed this in a class at some point, and how this type of sDm.n=f is much like the Late Egyptian "conjunctive". This is where my translation of "and she opened" came from, but I could not specifically remember the terminology by which one should refer to it. So, would you say that "continuative sDm.n=f" is the appropriate term? Do you know who has dubbed this form thusly?
[Serge Rosmorduc, 11/12/97; AEL Westcar P9 L28 - P10 L5]

I don't believe much in 2 [ed. see Hans' post, 9/12, above]. I think indicative forms look like sDm=f, not sDm.n=f ? Circumstantial sDm.n=f can have two values : the one you proposed, and a sequential one, to which Geoffrey has pointed. This gives two syntactical interpretations :

a) Sas pw...

wn.n=s tA at

b) wn.n=s tA at [sDm.n=f "en protase". Rare, but attested]

aHa.n sDm.n=s ....

One thing that annoys me in this sentence is that sDm.n=f appears very little in this text, except for verbs like gmi and the like which are almost auxiliaries. I wonder, indeed, if this one is not an error for *wn.in=s tA at

[Hans van Haarst, 11/12/97; RE>AEL Westcar P9 L28 - P10 L5]

To my knowledge the continuative/circumstantial sDm.n=f is used in a subclause after a preceding particle+circumstantial sDm.n=f in the main sentence. A good example of this continuative use of the circumstantial sDm.n=f is Westcar P10 L8 : aHa.n rdi.n=s ... gm.n=s ... You can insert aHa.n before gm.n=s so that gm.n=s can be considered as a continuative circumstantial sDm.n=f. In the case of P10 L1 : SAs pw ir.n tA wbA.t wn.n=s tA a.t I can not see how you can insert an particle such as aHa.n here. But I don't know which article by Doret you are referring to. In his 'Narrative Verbal System' on p.91 he gives only one example which is not very clear to me. An excellent article on the existence of the indicative sDm.n=f was written by Dr. L. Zonhoven. It appeared in the JEOL 33 (1995) p39-108
[MDS, 11/12/97; AEL Initial vs Non-initial clause]

There is an interesting discussion about Initial vs Non-initial clauses in Ancient Egyptian: A linguistic approach (p162 onwards). I have asked Antonio Loprieno for his interpretation on the specific line in question, and I give his response below (with permission).
[Dr. A. Loprieno; 10/12/97, to MDS]
"I think that wn.n=s in the passage you cite is neither initial (since the initial form is SAs pw ir.n tA wbA.t "Then the maid went,") nor circumstantial, but simply a regular "continuative" form, i.e. a non-initial verbal form paratactically linked to the initial form: "(and) opened the room, (and) heard the sound..."
Lines 4-5 [next] [top] [prev]

SAs pw iri.n=s
wn.in=s Hr wHm sDm.t.n=s nb.t n rd-Dd.t

[Hans van Haarst, 8/12/97; AEL Westcar P9 L28 - P10 L5] The maidservant set off and repeated to Rededjedet all she had heard.
[G.Graham, 8/12/97; RE>AEL Westcar P9 L28 - P10 L5] Slightly more literally: "It was setting out which the maidservant did, and then she was repeating everything which she had heard to Reddjedet." Of course, yours is in better English than this, but I wanted to show exactly how each part works.

Line 6 [next] [top] [prev]

wn.in=s Hr dbn tA-a.t n gmi.n=s bw irr.w st im

[MDS, 9/12/97; AEL Westcar P10, L6-8]

"Then she moved around the room without finding [lit. she does not find] the place where it came from [lit. "the place where one is making it"].
irr.w I take as an imperfect passive participle
[G.Graham, 9/12/97; RE>AEL Westcar P10, L6-8]

"Then she was circling the room without finding the place which was making it."
"without finding" works here because this is a circumstantial sDm.n=f, it is like saying "not having found", "the case being that she did not find", or "while/when she did not find". jrr.w is an imperfective active participle modifying bw, so it is "the place which was habitually making". st is of course the object, and has to refer back to the sound. jm is problematic for the English but it is kind of a resumption of bw. English would not need to repeat "place" and then "there".
[MDS, 9/12/97; AEL Westcar P10, L6-8]

Geoff wrote:"Then she was circling the room ..." This is the better translation. I had: "Then she moved around the room...", and had missed the ongoing action described by Hr dbn, lit. "upon circling/moving around".
In the latter part of the sentence I had difficulty in working out the voice of the verbal adjective. I translated as: "the place where it came from [lit. "the place where one is making it"], whereas Geoff had; "the place which was making it." At least I got that it was a participle ;-) I just had semantic difficulty in trying to work out how a 'place' could do something, so I went for the passive.
[G.Graham, 10/12/97; RE>AEL Westcar P10, L6-8]

Well, on more thought, the presence of jm makes me think that it probably means "the place from which it was being made", however, I wanted there to be an =f on the jrr for that. Maybe someone else will have a useful suggestion as to why this is behaving like a sDm=f relative but does not actually seem to be one of them.

Lines 7-8 [next] [top] [prev]

aHa.n rdi.n=s mAa=s r pA-XAr gmi.n=s iri=tw m-Xnw=f

[MDS, 9/12/97; AEL Westcar P10, L6-8] "Then she put her head to a sack [of grain] and she found it came [lit. "it was made"; a .tw passive] from within it"

[G.Graham, 9/12/97; RE>AEL Westcar P10, L6-8]

m3a is "temple/cheek", the "side of the head".
Line 9-11 [next] [top] [prev]

aHa.n rdi.n=s r pds rdi m-Xnw ky xtm is tnw m dHr.w
rdi.n=s st r a.t wnn.t Xr Hn.w=s
[Hans van Haarst, 13/12/97; AEL Westcar P10 L9-L12]

aHa.n rdi.n=s <sw> r pds
Then she put <it> in the box,
L9 begins with the particle aHa.n. This is originally a nominal sDm.n=f form of the verb aHa ('to stand up'), which in later narrative texts like this Westcar story petrified to a particle ('then'), that introduces a new sentence. Literally you could translate it as : 'stood up and'. (Gardiner p.392) Next there is a real verb form : the circumstantial sDm.n=f form of the verb rdi which means 'to put'. The combination aHa.n+sDm.n=f is a typical means in narrative texts to express the past tense. In general verb forms with the morpheme .n determine a past tense. There are two sDm.n=f forms

1. The nominal/emphatic sDm.n=f
2. The circumstantial sDm.n=f

You will not find no.1 in Gardiner because it belongs to a more recent theory of the Egyptian verb : the theory of Polotsky. This no.2 verbform is mainly used in subclauses which state the cirumstances under which the verbal act of the main clause is taking place, hence it's name circumstantial sDm.n=f.

=s : suffix pronoun 3 s.f., 'she' (the subject of the sentence)

The normal sequence of a Middle Egyptian sentence is Verb-Subject-Object (VSO). So after the verb+subject rdi.n=s you would expect an object. In the original hieratic manuscript ( hieratic is a writing form of the Egyptian language which the scribes used when they wrote on papyrus ) the next two words r pds start at a new line, so I think that the scribe forgot the object sw the dependent pronoun 3 s. m.). The object has to be sw because it refers to XAr which is masculine.
The last phrase is r pds which consists of a preposition r and a noun pds. For 'on' normally Hr or tp is used but here the combination rdi r is used like in rdi r tA ( 'put on the ground' ).
rdi.(w) m-Xnw ky xtm istn.w m dHr
".. that was placed inside the other case, that was ( could be ) binded by leather straps."
These two lines are both adjectival phrases to the noun pds. In L10 the morpheme w is written which is an indication that the verbform istn.w is a passive participle. Furthermore the verbform rdi(.w) is an indication that we are dealing with a perfective passive participle. The imperfective participle has didi. The conclusion is that rdi(.w) and istn.w are both perfective passive participles.
There are a few different participles :

1. the imperfective participle ( both active and passive )
2. the perfective participle ( also both active and passive )
3. the prospective participle ( only passive )
4. the sDm.ty.fy participle ( only active )

Participles 1. and 2. are in Gardiner : p. 272. Participle 3. you can find in a more recent grammar. Participle 4. is also in Gardiner : p. 280.
Two prepositions are used m-Xnw (a compound preposition meaning 'inside') and m ( 'in' ).
I inserted ( could be ) because you could argue that istn.w is an prospective passive participle, a participle that expresesses a future or modal tense ( 'will', 'might', 'could ', etc.)

rdi.n=s st r a.t wnn.t Xr Hnw=s
".. and she put it in the room that contained her belongings."
Here again the circumstantial sDm.n=f is used and in this case as continuation of the previous sentence, which is expressed by the English conjunction 'and'. st is the object of the sentence 'it'. wnn.t is a particle meaning 'indeed', but as many of these enclitic ( enclosed between other words ) particles, one can leave them untranslated. The preposition Xr means 'under' , but is also an Egyptian way to express possession.

Line 12 [next] [top] [prev]

xtm.n=s Hr=f iw.t pw iri.n ra-wsr m ii m SA

Line 13 [next] [top] [prev]

wn.in rd-Dd.t Hr wHm n=f mdw.t tn
[Mark Vygus,18/12/97; AEL Translation Westcar P10/L13-28] Reddjedet repeated to him this matter

[MDS, 19/12/97; Re: AEL Translation Westcar P10/L13-28]

Gets a little repetitive, but wn.in (sDm.in=f)is a contingent narrative verb form, so "Then Reddjedet...". The next part of the sentence is a preposition + infinitive, lit. "upon repeating" although the infinitive itself is tenseless. This generally describes 'action in progress', and in this case could be translated, "was repeating" or "while repeating". After the infinitive (a nominal form of the verb) we have
a) n=f, "for/to him", the logical indirect object. This is a suffix pronoun attached to the dative n.
b) mdw.t tn, the the logical direct object ("this matter"). Now it seems to me that the n=f has snuck in before the logical object, similar to the word order of the circumstantial sDm=f. This is not supposed to happen here. The logical object should be a direct genitive to the infinitive eg. lit. "the repeating of this matter". Can anyone comment on this please.
Line 14 [next] [top] [prev]

wn.in ib=f nfr r ix.t nb.t
[Mark Vygus,18/12/97; AEL Translation Westcar P10/L13-28] his heart was happy, more than anything
[MDS, 20/12/97; Re: AEL Translation Westcar P10/L14]

Again a sDm.in=f form. The subject is ib=f, "his heart", so a bit more literally "Then his heart..", or even more literally, "Then his heart WAS..", since the verb wnn means 'to be/exist'.
Now the interesting thing here is the next word is the thing predicated about his heart, ie. 'his heart WAS HAPPY'. To me, the word nfr looks like it has to be a stative verb form (aka, old perfective) of what is usually an adjective. The subject of this stative (which normally precedes it) is also the subject of the first verb form wn.in. So I would transliterate nfr as nfr.w giving it the 3rd person masc. sing. suffix, .w. The meaning would be that his heart was in the state of being happy.
Now I assume that the alternative way of doing this: *nfr.in ib=f*, 'then his heart was happy', is not possible because 'adjective verbs' cannot be used in this fashion. Also, the initial 'wn.in' forces the subject to come immediately afterwards, so preventing the use of a 'nfr sw' construction, *wn.in ib=f nfr sw..."* Comments please.

Line 15-16 [next] [top] [prev]

Hmsi.t pw iri.n=sn Hr hrw nfr
xr m-xt hrw.w s-wAi Hr nn

[Mark Vygus,18/12/97; AEL Translation Westcar P10/L13-28] They sat down to a happy day (day of feasting) ? After some days had passed concerning this (event)
Line 17-18 [next] [top] [prev]

aHa.n SnT rd-Dd.t ix.t n tA-wbA.y.t
rdi.n=s xsf=tw n=s m Hwi.t

[Mark Vygus,18/12/97; AEL Translation Westcar P10/L13-28] Then Reddjedet questioned (argued ?) things with the maidservantshe caused one to punish her with a beating(she had her punished with a beating)

Line 19-20 [next] [top] [prev]

aHa.n Dd.n tA-wbA.y.t n nA-n rmT nty m pA-pr

[Mark Vygus,18/12/97; AEL Translation Westcar P10/L13-28] Then the maidservant said to the people who were in the house
Line 21 [next] [top] [prev]

in irr.t st nA///
iw msi.n=s n.y.w-sw.t xmt
[Mark Vygus,18/12/97; AEL Translation Westcar P10/L13-28] How could one do it, this, to me ? She has given birth to 3 kings

[Hans van Haarst, 19/12/97; Re: AEL Translation Westcar P10/L13-28]

In my Blackman-edition of the Westcar papyrus the empty space /// is filled in with r=i : in irr.t=s nA r=i. The suffix pronoun .s is here written as st, this can be an influence of Late Egyptian. If you look at the original hieratic (also in Blackman) the t in irr.t=s seems to me written differently from the t in st, it looks very much like another r. But is is difficult to see. So maybe the scribe wrote : in irr.s nA r=i. This is an interrogatory sentence : it starts with in . Then follows an emphatic sDm=f , nA is object and r=i is the adverbial adjunct, the vedette. The translation : "Is it to me that she did this ?" Anyway all this is pure speculation, only in irr=s nA r=i is correct M.E. and in irr.t=s nA r=i ( irr.t=s being a imperfective relative form, and nA being what ?) is hard for me to fathom. Maybe another attempt to represent the imperfect knowledge of correct M.E. by the maid ? But I have to be careful here because my own knowledge of M.E. is far from perfect :-) Your translation is surely what it must mean.
Line 22 [next] [top] [prev]

iw=i r Smi.t Dd st n Hm n.y n.y-sw.t bi.t xwi=f-wi mAa xrw

[Mark Vygus,18/12/97; AEL Translation Westcar P10/L13-28] I will go and tell it to the majesty of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt (KHUFU), justified

Line 23-25 [next] [top] [prev]

SAs pw iri.n=s
gmi.n=s sn=s n.y mw.t=s smsw Hr mr mHy.w nw.t Hr xt.y.w
[Mark Vygus,18/12/97; AEL Translation Westcar P10/L13-28] It was a travelling she made ( she went ) and she found her eldest brother of her mothers (half-brother ???) tying flax cord upon the threshing-floor
[Hans van Haarst, 19/12/97; Re: AEL Translation Westcar P10/L13-28]
This is an interesting parallel to P10 L1, there we had a discussion on the verb form wn.n=s.
Here we have also a sDm.n=f form (gmi.n=s) but now this is followed by two
adverbial phrases.
1. sn=s ... Hr mr (infinitive) mHy.w nw.t
2. Hr xtyw
According to the theory of Polotsky the last adverbial phrase is the vedette ( english : pivot ?)
The translation would then be :
" It was on the threshing-floor that she found her eldest brother of her mothers tying flax cord".
But your translation I like much better, these cleft sentences seem pretty unnatural to me. They are just there because we can not reproduce intonation and rhythm of speech in writing. When we want to emphasize something while speaking we raise our voice : " She found him ON THE THRESHING-FLOOR ! " The Egyptian Language did not have capital letters, so they changed the morphology of the verb forms to indicate emphasis ( the emphatic/nominal sDm.(n)=f )
Another phenomenon occurs in this sentence. sn=s is object of gmi.n=s and at the same time subject of the adverbial phrase sn=s Hr mr mHy.w nw.t. This is called 'raising'.
Line 26 [next] [top] [prev]

aHa.n Dd.n=f n=s
iri.t r Tnw iAd.y.t Sri.t
[Mark Vygus,18/12/97; AEL Translation Westcar P10/L13-28] Then he said to her Where are (you) going, little girl ?

Line 27-28 [next] [top] [prev]

wn.in=s Hr wHm n=f mdw.t tn
aHa.n Dd.n n=s pAy=s sn
[Mark Vygus,18/12/97; AEL Translation Westcar P10/L13-28] She repeated to him this matter Then her brother said to her
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