Leah BenderApril 2015

The Harp Unstrung: A Translation of “Ripple”

“Ripple” is a popular song from the 1970 Grateful Dead album American Beauty. It is a

relatively brief song that appears deceptively simple, but it contains several profound philosophical

themes as well as allusions to works such as the Tao Te Ching and the biblical psalms. Thematically,

Ripple lends itself well to translation into a dead language. Not only is it an attempt at a modern psalm,

but the initial concern expressed in the song is the author's worry that his words will lose their original

meaning once they are released into the world and people approach them with their own contexts. As

such, the act of transposing these words into what likely is a context the author could never have

anticipated feels fitting, if somewhat ironic.

Translation is a delicate task. One cannot simply transpose vocabulary and grammar, but must

also attempt to preserve the meaning of the words, and this is doubly true in the case of songs and

poetry. Early in the process of translating this song, I realized that simply translating the words and

grammatical structures as-is was entirely insufficient. While it was possible and effective for some

lines, other lines were either grammatically impossible to render or would have resulted in meaningless

text when read in Egyptian. With this in mind, I first engaged in a close analysis of the text to ascertain

the meaning, then attempted to render it in English to be as close as possible to the way I would express

that sentiment with Egyptian grammar and idiom. I tried to preserve the vocabulary wherever possible,

but most important to my translation was the emotional impact of the words and phrasing.

The original lyrics are as follows:

“Ripple”(Words by Robert Hunter; Music by Jerry Garcia)

If my words did glow with the gold of sunshineAnd my tunes were played on the harp unstrungWould you hear my voice come through the musicWould you hold it near as it were your own?

It's a hand-me-down, the thoughts are brokenPerhaps they're better left unsungI don't know, don't really careLet there be songs to fill the air

Chorus:Ripple in still waterWhere there is no pebble tossedNor wind to blow

Reach out your hand if your cup be emptyIf your cup is full, may it be againLet it be known there is a fountainThat was not made by the hands of men

There is a road, no simple highwayBetween the dawn and the dark of nightAnd if you go, no one may followThat path is for your steps alone

(Chorus)

You who choose to lead must followBut if you fall, you fall aloneIf you should stand, then who's to guide you?If I knew the way, I would take you home

My line-by-line analysis and translation of the song follows:

If my words did glow with the gold of sunshine And my tunes were played on the harp unstrungWould you hear my voice come through the music?

The first verse of the song was one that was altered the most in the process of translation. In

English, the first three lines contain a pair of if/then conditional clauses, phrased as a question.

However, I chose not to render them as such in Egyptian. The primary reason for this decision is

meaning. This is a very personal, existential question: the author wondering whether the survival of his

work will happen at the expense of his memory as an individual, as tends to happen with traditional

folk songs. I felt it best, therefore, to ask this question directly.

in iw.k r sxA.i Will you remember me

The choice of the r of futurity rather than a wnn.f construction in the first line was a semantic

one. The use of the r of futurity felt stronger and more direct, as befits an opening line. Later in the

text, I use wn constructions in phrases that are more metaphorical in an attempt to convey that these are

less concrete. I chose a simple future for these questions to reflect the musing of an author to a future

listener.

mdwt.i Hr psD(w) m nbw n(y) iAxw my words glowing with the gold of sunshine

gr DADAt and whose harp is silent 1

i sDmw n Hst tn o, one who hears this song?

1 Literally “silent of harp”. The silent harp is a reference to loss of context. The songless or unstrung harp refers to changing contexts and cultural expression. A song or a poem may well survive, but it will never be understood in its original context and, as the final line of the verse will express, people will approach through the lens of their own culture and context. In the original text, it is a layered allusion, both to the traditional instrument of the psalmist and, suggested by David Dodd in The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics, to William Butler Yeats' “The Madness of King Goll”:

“Time was, as in a little town That slumbered ‘neath the harvest moonI passed a tiptoe up and down Murmuring a mountain tuneOf how I hear on hill-heads high A tramping of tremendous feetI saw this harp all songless lie Deserted in a doorway seat”

One of the most immediately obvious changes is the addition of the vocative address at the end

of the question. the song repeatedly addresses “you”, and that “you” is left unspecified until the final

verse. In my interpretation of the song, the “you” addressed for most of the song is the individual

human listening to the song as opposed to the specific plural group addressed in the final verse. As

such, I did not feel comfortable leaving one “you” directly unspecified, so I added a specific vocative

address to the end of the first question. Gardiner notes that the introductory vocative interjection is

used in religious or semi-religious texts.2 As this is song is written as a modern psalm, I felt the use of

this introduction for the vocative was appropriate.

in iw r sDm.k xrw.i m Hst Will you hear my voice in the music?

In the process of forming the opening question, this became a second question.

Would you hold it near as it were your own?

in iw.f m-a.k mi xwt n.k imy Is it in your hand, like the possessions of your own?

The “it” implied in the final question is the song mentioned at the end of the last one. The “of

one's own” construction of X n.f imy is provided by Hoch.3 In the final Egyptian translation, the

opening verse is set apart as a unit, marked by a triplet of in iw questions.

It's a hand-me-down, the thoughts are broken

As a translator, I discovered that I do not like leaving unspecified pronouns. As such, this line

became a couplet, referring to the thoughts expressed in the first verse:

2 Egyptian Grammar, Sir Alan H. Gardiner (1950), p 673 Middle Egyptian Grammar, James E. Hoch (1997), pp 141-142

is nn n(y) HAtyw pw iwat.i Indeed, these thoughts are my inheritance

The author is expressing that this existential sentiment is not a new one, but is the sort of thing

with which all writers struggle. Therefore, rendered “this is my inheritance”, expressing this shared

burden, expressed as a simple tripartite pw.

nn n(y) HAtyw ngi These thoughts are broken

This line is rendered virtually as-is from the original. I could find no better way to express the

sentiment, which I interpret as a sort of resignation and acceptance of the fact that one will have these

existential doubts over which has no control.

Perhaps they're better left unsung

nfr pw nn Dd.tw.f sn

It is better that one does not say them.

This line caused quite a headache. It is incredibly difficult to express the potential case in

Egyptian. The best way I could find was the sDm.kA.f construction, which Frank Kammerzell and

Carsten Peust suggest can be used to express what one might say.4 Initially, I had translated this with

sDm.kA.f, rendering it with the awkward, “I might say, 'It is better that one does not say it than one says

it'.” This was doubly awkward, as one cannot have a lone comparative adjective in Egyptian.

Eventually, I decided to render it as a straight statement. It does not express the potentiality of the

original line, but it much cleaner than any other attempt.

4 Frank Kammerzell and Carsten Peust, “Reported Speech in Egyptian” in Reported Discourse: A Meeting Ground for Different Linguistic Domains (2002), p.303

I don't know, don't really care

n rx.n.i nn s(y) m ib.i I do not know and it is not in my heart

The second phrase is borrowed directly from Sinuhe, via Hoch.5

Let there be songs to fill the air

wn st.k mH m Hswt M ay your place be full of songs

There are many Egyptian words for “air”, but they tend to refer to wind or breath. In this

context, “the air” implies the area surrounding an individual, hence the choice of the word “place”.

“Let there be/May there be” indicates a present subjunctive wish clause in both English and Egyptian.

Ripple in still waterWhere there is no pebble tossedNor wind to blow

In English, the chorus of the song is a 17-syllable haiku.6 Haiku are poems about nature and

tend to reflect impermanent moments in time. This is an important element of the original song and I

have done my best to make sure that the syllables in my translation match.

iw wn pyw m mw gr There are ripples in still water

5 Hoch, Grammar, p 118 (Sinuhe B223-24)6 Contrary to popular understanding, haiku are not a strict 5-7-5 syllable format. Rather, as in this case, it is acceptable for

lines one and three to add or lose a syllable. For example, this haiku by 15th-century master poet Matsuo Basho:富士の風や扇にのせて江戸土産

ふじのかぜやおうぎにのせてえどみやげBreaks down into:

fu-ji no ka-ze ya (6) /o-ogi ni no-se-te (7) /e-do mi-ya-ge (5)The wind of Mt. Fuji / Carrying it in my fan / A souvenir for those in Edo

(Trans. David Landis Barnhill, Basho's Haiku (2012), p 22)

I decided to use iw wn instead of X pw for two reasons. The bipartite pw feels firmer and more

definite. This did not feel appropriate for a gentle line about impermanence and insubstantiality.

Secondly, the iw wn added an extra syllable for the haiku.

n xAa.n.tw iar A pebble was not tossed

n pt tn TAw The weather was not windy

This statement is a negation of a phrase borrowed from Urkunden V, referenced in Faulkner's

dictionary entry for TAw.7

Reach out your hand if your cup be empty

Awy awy.ky wS wsx.k You should extend your hands when your cup is empty.

The vocabulary in this line was chosen entirely for the sake of phonetic wordplay.

Grammatically, it is a prospective sDm.f with a subordinate conditional stative. It is the first

prospective in a grouped triplet. I initially considered making this line imperative, but decided against

it on the grounds that it would weaken the impact of the imperative in the last verse.

If your cup is full, may it be again

wn mH wsx.k Dt mi mH wsx.k m pA hrwMay your cup be full always just like your cup is full today.

This is another line that proved troublesome, largely due to the subordinate wish clause, for

7 “TAw” in Raymond O Faulkner, A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian (2002), p 303

which I could not find an acceptable Egyptian equivalent. At one point, I had this line translated as a

Wechselsatz: mH wsx.k mH wsx.k Dt (Just as your cup is full, so will it be full always), but I wanted to

retain the wish. Given the next line, the prospective triplet grouping made sense.

Let it be known there is a fountain that was not made by the hands of men

This is another line that I changed significantly for meaning. This verse is about life's unfair

distribution of fortune, and given the previous lines' discussion of the filling of cups, I rendered it:

rx.k nTr pw dd mw pn May you know it is God who gives this water.

There is a road, no simple highway between the dawn and the dark of night

iw wn wAt nwHt iwd dwAyt m wSAw There is a winding road between the dawn and the darkness

The phrase “there is a road, no simple highway” was condensed into the phrase “there is a

winding road”. Overall, it is the cleanest phrasing I could achieve and the meaning remains intact.

Additionally, the phrasing is a tip of the hat to a song in the Lennon/McCartney oeuvre. This is the

second time I chose to use an iw wn construction, as I felt the type of imagery and metaphor deserved a

softer phrasing.

And if you go, no one may follow; That path is for your steps alone.

nn wn Smsw Hr wAt pn n(y) sw rdwy.k waty There is no follower upon this road, which belongs to your feet solely

nn wn was chosen for this statement because it not only negates the follower in the present, wn’s

role as a copula implies the situation is a total impossibility. Therefore, it is not simply “there is not a

one who follows”, but also “there cannot be one who follows”. The nisbe waty feels awkward, but it

was the only way I could find to express that the road was for only the feet of the person addressed.

You who choose to lead must follow

Sms i sSmwFollow, o leaders!

The simple phrasing of this line was chosen to accentuate the phonetic wordplay of juxtaposing

those two words. Even though I could have used an imperative earlier in the song, I felt it was a

stronger choice to save it for the last verse. The choice to include another vocative was to emphasize

that the “you” the song addresses has changed. Given the lack of a formal second-person plural in

English, it can be difficult to tell if a speaker is addressing an individual or a group. However, the

conjugation of the verb “choose” in this line indicates that it is, in fact plural: Therefore, for the rest of

the song, “you” is assumed to be plural.

But if you fall, you fall alone

ir xr.tn xr.tn waiIf you fall, then you fall alone.

This form of fall means to fall in a military sense, which I felt was appropriate for a group of leaders.

If you should stand, then who's to guide you?

aHa.tn mAa n.tn mShould you stand, who would guide you?

The last two lines of the song are a couplet comprised of bare if/then statements. Bare if/then

statements express a should/would sentiment, which I felt was appropriate for the uncertainty of these

two lines.8

If I knew the way, I would take you home

wn rx.kwi wAt wn sSm.kwi tw n prw.tnShould I know the way, I would lead you to your homes.

Putting a pair of statives in this bare conditional construction emphasizes the wistfulness of this

statement. “Should I be in a state of knowing” is essentially what the English “If I knew”. However,

even with the seemingly complicated phrasing, it retains the sense of existential uncertainty coupled

with love for one's fellow man that is the hallmark of the song.

8 Hoch, Grammar, p 157

Bibliography:

Bamhill, David Landis. Basho's Haiku: Selected Poems of Matsuo Basho (SUNY Press 2012)Dodd, David. The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics (Simon and Schuster 2014)Faulkner, Raymond O. A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian (Griffith Institute 2002)Gardiner, Sir Alan H. Egyptian Grammar: Being an Introduction to the Study of Hieroglpyhs (Griffith Institute 1950)Hoch, James E. Middle Egyptian Grammar (Benben Publications 1997)Kammerzell, Frank and Carsten Peust, “Reported Speech in Egyptian” in Tom Güldemann and

Manfredv on Roncador eds. Reported Discourse: A Meeting Ground for Different Linguistic Domains (University of Leipzig 2002)

Appendix A:

Appendix B:

in iw.k r sxA.i mdwt.i Hr psD(w) m nbw n(y) iAxw gr DADAt i sDmw n Hst tn in iw r sDm.k xrw.i m Hstin iw.f m-a.k mi xt n.k imy is nn n(y) HAtyw pw iwat.i nn n(y) HAtyw ngi nfr pw nn Dd.tw.f snn rx.n.i nn s(y) m ib.iwn st.k mH m Hswt

iw wn pyw m mw gr n xAa.n.tw iar n pt tn TAw

Awy awy.ky wS wsx.k wn mH wsx.k Dt mi mH wsx.k m pA hrw rx.k nTr pw dd mw pn

iw wn wAt nwHt iwd dwAyt m wSAw nn wn Smsw Hr wAt pn n(y) sw rdwy.k waty

Sms i sSmw ir xr.tn xr.tn wai aHa.tn mAa n.tn m wnrx.kwi wAt wn sSm.kwi tw n prw.tn