Egyptian religious poetry

PREBA‘CE

In writing this book I am addressing those readers to whom it is the spirit of a poem that appeals, and not the exact and “ scholarly ” (Anglicé, dull) translation. Translation is always a ticklish business ; on the one side there is the Scylla of the wordfor-word translation, whereby the words are given their equivalents in the other language, with often a complete loss of the spirit of the original ; on the other hand, there is the Charybdis of the free translation where the translator incorporates into the text sentiments which are not justified by the original. Translators of poetry are notoriously the worst offenders in the latter respect, but that there are brilliant exceptions is well known. In these cases, however, the translators have been poets as well as scholars. The Psalms are a shining example of such translations. In modern times, Edward Fitzgerald and Sir Gilbert Murray have shown that the divine fire of the originals is not hidden when reproduced in another language. I cannot attain to such heights ; all that I have attempted to do is to show the reader that Egyptian religious poetry had in it something closely akin to our own, that to these ancient people God showed himself as a God of Love as well as a God great and terrible. Though many of the epithets applied to the Deity are strange and unfamiliar to us, they meant as much to the Egyptian worshipper as “ the Babe of Bethlehem ” or “ the Son of Man” mean to the Christian. I have, however, retained as far as possible a word-for-word translation of many of the epithets. But in every way I have kept in mind the saying of a master of translation, ‘ Translation is an Art, not a Science.”

In arranging the book I have put first a Glossary of all names

9