Teaching of Amenemhat I, section 8

The Teaching of King Amenemhat I
Transliteration

(8)
mk stAw xpr iw.i m xmt.k
n sDmt Snyt swAD.i n.k
n Hmst.i Hna.k ix iry.i sxrw.k
Hr-ntt n Hr.i st n xmt.i st
n in ib.i wsft nt bAkw

Section 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Translation

(8)
SEE, THE ATTACK HAPPENED WHEN I WAS WITHOUT YOU, Before the court had heard I would hand over to you,
Before I had sat with you, to make your position.
For I had not feared it, I had not envisaged it.
My hear had not borne the failure of servants.

Commentary to the translation. Detailed points

(8)
attack
Perhaps more specifically 'treason' or 'treachery'

Before I had sat with you, to make your position: on the coregency question, see the general commentary

I had not envisaged it A stark implicit contrast to the ideological norm whereby the king rules, like the sun-god, with Divine Perception (Sia).

Servants
This word denotes not all estate-workers, but those whose juridical status tied them to the person of their master, the closest in Middle Kingdom Egypt to the ancient Greek and Roman category of slave. However, the same word was used by extension to denote all subjects on a lower level, regardless of juridical status. In late Middle Kingdom letters, the sender regularly takes the designation 'servant', much as modern letters use the phrase 'Yours' without literal significance.