Friday, November 2, 2018

Ptahhotep, lessons for children of elite, Maxim 28, Past Offenses

There's not much to it. Only four lines.

If you are lenient about a matter that has happened,
and inclined toward a man because of his rectitude,
pass over it, do not think of it,
since he will be quiet for you from the first day.

I don't even know what Ptahhotep is trying to say. I don't see how the second couplet completes the first couplet. I don't know how the lines relate to the title.  I don't see any offenses. And I don't know how interpreters get this from the material given. Hardly anything matches when I look up each individual word. Some things are not in my dictionaries.

It's all so fer'in and super antique.

It makes you have to go, "Fine, Professor, since you say so."

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