4 ms·

I think number 32 - exercise continence - is a really important one

• thaumasiotes 5y ago
  It appears to have been bowdlerized in the text available on Project Gutenberg (which the article author probably didn't bother to look beyond). Elsewhere in the thread someone has linked a UCL "digital egypt" effort that makes the text available in the original and a translation: Do not have sex with a child woman when you knew the approach to the water of its chest. There is no cooling what is in his body. Do not go mad on making the approach. He is cool after damaging his heart. This is what the Gutenberg text renders as "[concerning continence]". The first line seems fairly clear, but I don't really understand what the next four lines are saying. There is a serious disagreement between the two translations as to #37, where the Gutenberg translation has this: If thou make a woman to be ashamed, wanton of heart, one known by her townsfolk to be falsely placed, be kind unto her for a space, send her not away, give her to eat. The wantonness of her heart shall esteem thy guidance. and the UCL translation has this: If you marry a good-time girl A joyful woman known to her town, If she is wayward, and revels in the moment, do not reject her, but instead let her enjoy; joyfulness is what marks calm water. Something has gone badly wrong here, and clearly euphemisms are involved somewhere, but without the ability to read the Egyptian there's no way to know what the text actually said.
  • robbiep 5y ago
    Thankyou for that! I thought perhaps it may be a corruption of countenance but that doesnt seem to make sense given the original translation either