The "Complaints of Khakheperraseneb", also called the "Lamentations of Khakheperraseneb", is an ancient Egyptian text. Our earliest extant copy of the work is likely dated between 1800 and 1650 BCE. Its outer bound is 1250 since writing tablets of this sort disappear from the archaeological record by that time but the style of script suggests a date much earlier by a margin of at least several centuries. It pairs with other literature of the second Egyptian Dark Age, and shows a particular affinity with the Ipuwer Papyrus.
“My surprise and pleasure were great when many of the rare words known to me from the Admonitions [of Ipuwer] made their appearance one by one, as I advanced with the transcription; it seemed almost as though this new text had been written for the express purpose of illustrating my Leiden papyrus! Nor were the resemblances confined to the vocabular)' alone: the latter parts contain a pessimistic description of the world that vividly recalled the descriptive portions of the Admonitions. At the same time I noted differences both in the form and in the matter which made a comparison with the Admonitions particularly instructive; and I soon became aware of an especially important point about the writing board, namely that its date can be fixed with certainty. From every point of view therefore it seemed advisable to publish this new document as an Appendix to my work on Pap. Leiden 344. ”
It begins:
Would that I had phrases unknown, sayings unused, new words not yet set down, free of repetitions, devoid of the phrases in that familiar language which the ancestors spoke.
And continues:
A speaker has not spoken who says what remains unspoken.
At length, the author explains the cause of this strange new desire:
I contemplate what has happened, the conditions which have come about throughout the land. Transformations are taking place; it is not like last year...The Lords of Silence (i.e. the dead) are disturbed. (When) morning comes each day, the face recoils at what has happened.
Regardless of whether K.’s document is reflective of the actual words of this figure, Khakheperrasedeb, whose shadow is so long that it stretches (thinly but distinctly) over records spaced out across two milliena, or if it is otherwise the pseudepigraphic production of a student working during the years in which the Middle Kingdom collapsed (which would be equally unique and without other distinct examples in the inventory of contemporaneous artifacts available to compare it with) then this text may be regarded as the earliest verbally articulated expression of the desire to think differently—to rise above traditional norms and break out beyond the frontiers of accustomed knowledge.
Description and dating Alan Gardiner's description of the tablet, never significantly revised in subsequent scholarship, reads as follows in a section of its introduction of the artifact into the inventory: Brit. Mus. 5645 is a wooden board 55 cm. long and 29 cm. high, covered on both sides with a coating of stucco. The stucco is laid upon the wood by means of a coarse network of string, which was attached to the board with some adhesive matter. In the middle of the right hand side is a small hole, which made it possible for the board to be suspended from a wall. The text consists of four paragraphs of varying length, three of which are upon the recto; the verso contains the fourth paragraph, and, lower down, two lines of larger writing that have nothing to do with the preceding literary text. The entire board is covered with dirty reddish marks which may very easily be confused with the red verse-points, and all the more so since the latter have become very pale in colour. The writing is in places quite faint, and the task of decipherment was in consequence not always very easy.
The hieratic hand is perhaps more nearly related to that of the Westcar papyrus* than to any other well-known text; however I am inclined to assign it to a somewhat later date...
*Re: The Westcar Papyrus (P. Berlin 3033) is presently dated 18th-16th century BCE.M. Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, vol.1, University of California Press 1973, p.215 At the time that Gardiner was writing (1909), P. Berlin 3033 was dated to the earlier years of that timespan.Dietrich Wildung: Die Rolle ägyptischer Könige im Bewusstsein ihrer Nachwelt. Münchner ägyptologische Studien 17. Berlin 1969. page 159–161. Gardiner therefore indicates: sometime probably later than the first half of the century running from 1800-1701BCE. Notably, the Shepeherd King dynasty begins to get traction sometime around 1750BCE as the 13th dynasty is still vying for control but dying out.
This writing board is currently held in the British Museum.Lichtheim, Miriam, and Antonio Loprieno. 2006. Ancient Egyptian Literature. Volume I, the Old and Middle Kingdoms. Berkeley, Calif.; London: University of California Press. The date of its inscription is thought to be near the collapse of central control as new rulers from foreign lands are encroaching on the traditional pharaonic power structure—from the end of the 12th dynasty, through the 13th.
Context of the Date
The 14th dynasty is known as the period of the shepherd kings or foreign rulers (re: Hyksos) beginning (roughly) with the ascension to leadership of Yakub-Har (otherwise dated to the end of Merneferre Ay's reign) and arriving at its spectacular climax with the fall of Avaris. To call it a pharaonic dynasty, as has been suggested by Dodson and others, is almost a misnomer since virtually all major conventions of Pharaonic rule and its halo of cultural production fall out of the record during this period.
At the very earliest, this document is from the end of the 12th dynasty (according to analysis of the text's grammarFuture at Issue: Tense, Mood and Aspect in Middle Egyptian: Studies in Syntax and Semantics (Yale Egyptological Studies 4, New Haven, 1990), p. 188; also id, in press (see No. I)), at the latest likely date it is written at the beginning of the 14th dynasty—or in other words after the Second Intermediate Period has already begun.
This work dates, therefore, to some year during the dawning of a dark age in Egyptian history, from the perspective of conservative Pharaonic forces of Kemet (the 'black land' on the banks of the Nile and especially in Upper Egypt, as opposed to Deshret—the red land of desert wilderness beyond that narrow strait, and also of the environs roundabout the Nile Delta in Lower Egypt). It reflects upon the sclerotic conservativism of attitudes and available forms of cultural production in Egypt in the midst of their extinction at the end of the Middle Kingdom.
Implications of the Language
Alan Gardiner, in his initial presentation of the material, classes this text together with a later papyrus, The Admonitions of Ipuwer, as representative of the literature of Lamentations reflecting on the Second Intermediate Period.Gardiner, Alan Henderson (1909). The admonitions of an Egyptian sage from a hieratic papyrus in Leiden (Pap. Leiden 344 recto). Institute of Fine Arts Library New York University. Leipzig, J. C. Hinrichs. p. 96-109.
"He had been struck by the number of philological similarities between the two texts and by the fact they both belong to that genre of pessimistic literature that includes such works as describe the dialogue between a man and his ba." One might think of the Egyptian ba as the voice that one hears in one's head when thinking; although these phenomenological categories were thought of differently in ancient Egypt, the comparison serves as an analogy.
Subsequent scholarship has not attempted to revise Gardiner's original judgment on this question.
Translation of the text A translation of the text drawn from the Egyptologist Gerald Kaddish and from his model in the original Gardiner publication appears below: The compilation of old sayings, gleanings from maxims, the searching for phrases in racking the brain which the [?] priest of Heliopolis, Senys son, Kha-kheper-Rēr-senebu, called 'Ankhu, assembled.
He says: "Would that I had (some) phrases which were unknown," sayings that were unusual (or) new words not yet been used, free of repetition's devoid of the phrases of that familiar language which the ancestors spoke. I have drained my body' because of what was in it, to get rid of all that I have said (before),' inasmuch as it is indeed (mere) repetition of what has been said repeatedly.
What has been said is said."One cannot boast of the words of the ancestors or, indeed, of what subsequent generations discovered." A speaker has not (yet) spoken who says what is yet to be spoken."What is found of another's, that is what will be said,' without adding the statement afterwards: '"What they [i.e. the ancestors] did previously', without words which they [i.e. the modern copiers] had conceived of saying." It is courting ruin! It is falsehood! There is no one who will recall such a person's name to others.
I have said these things on the basis of what I have seen in the records of the past] from the first generation down through those which came thereafter. "These things have outlived what is past." Would indeed that I knew something others did not know, things which have not been repeated. (Then) I would express them, (so that) my heart might answer me. I would explain to it about my suffering and (thereby) shift to it the burden which is upon my back, (namely) the words which afflict me? I would relate to it the things which I suffer on account of it. (Then) I would (be able to) say: 'Ah!' because of my relief.
I contemplate what has happened, the conditions which have come about throughout the land. Transformations are taking place; it is not like last year. One year is more troublesome than the other. The land is breaking up, becoming a wasteland to me, his being made as ... "Justice has been cast aside, wrong-doing is (even) in the council-chamber. The plans of the gods are interfered with; their ordinances are neglected. The land is in continuous distress." Mourning is everywhere. The towns and nomes are in grief in All persons alike suffer wrongs. (As for) reverence, backs are turned to it. The Lords of Silence (i.e. the dead) are disturbed. (When) morning comes each day, the face recoils at what has happened."
I (must) speak about these things. My body is weighed down. "I am distressed because of my heart and it is painful to keep silent about it." Another heart would be bowed down and broken. "Now a brave heart, in evil circumstances, is a companion for its possessor." Would that I had such a heart, able to suffer, then I would (be able to) rely upon it. I would load it down with words of misery. I would thrust on to it my suffering. He says to his heart: 'Come, then, my heart, that I may speak to you, that you might answer for me my statements, that you might explain to me that which pervades the land, that that which was bright, has been cast down.
I contemplate what has happened. Misery has been introduced nowadays.