The Tale of Sinuhe: and Other Ancient Egyptian Poems 1940-1640 B.C.

“The Tale of the Eloquent Peasant” shares two Middle Kingdom manuscripts with “The Tale of Sinuhe” and was probably composed at the same time. Also concerned with the theme of suffering, the plot is simple: A peasant is robbed, and his appeals to a higher authority occupy the rest of the poem, demonstrating great rhetorical skill.

Though a treatise on the value of Truth, Wisdom, and Justice, the poem, Parkinson suggests, is also a satire on dealing with bureaucracy. The petitions present a profound but deeply ironic questioning of human ability to uphold truth and justice, with the peasant’s suffering prolonged by the figures of authority who are supposed to give him redress. His rhetorical virtuosity is a performance for the king. Four Middle Kingdom papyri survive, along with later copies.

Khunanup is a peasant in the Wadi Natrun region. One day he calls his wife, Meret, to say he is going to Egypt to buy provisions. He asks her to measure out grain that she can make into bread and beer for him, and the rest he leaves for her. He then loads his donkeys with wares including reeds, fan palms, natron, salt, leopard skins and wolf hides, fruits and plants—“all the fair produce of Wadi Natrun” (58).