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5988 Aram 16 07 Durkin ARAM, 16 (2004) 95-107 D. DURKIN-MEISTERERNST 95 THE PARTHIAN mwqrˆnyg bˆsˆÌ (Turfan Collection, Berlin, M4a I V 3-16).1 DESMOND DURKIN-MEISTERERNST (Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften) The Turfan fragment M4a I V 3-16 contains a hymn in Parthian. Though short it is preceded and followed by captions, which would suggest that it is complete. MÜLLER published it in 1904 and LIDZBARSKI 1918 conjectured on the basis of the metrics, the structure of the text and a particular play of words that it must have had an Aramaic original, which he reconstructed. The text poses a number of interesting problems and puzzles, which now, more than 80 years after Lidzbarski’s perspicacious article, we can view in the light of more material than was available then.2 But does this bring us nearer to solutions? We will here look at 1: the text, structure and meaning of the hymn, 2: the title, and 3: the speaker, the language and the possible origin of the text. 1. THE TEXT, STRUCTURE AND MEANING OF THE HYMN Transliteration of the text3: 3/ nysˆrˆd mwqrˆnyg bˆsˆ 4/ ˆbjyrwˆng {snwhrg hym 5/ cy ˆc bˆbyl zmyg 6/ wyspryxt hym °° wyspryxt 7/ hym ˆc zmyg bˆbyl ˆwd 8/ pd rˆstyft br ˆwystˆˆd 9/ hym °° °° srˆwg hym ˆbjyrwˆng 10/ cy ˆc bˆbyl zmyg frnft 11/ hym °° frnft hym ˆc zmyg 12/ bˆbyl kw xrwsˆn xrws pd 13/ zmbwdyg °° °° ˆw {smˆ yzdˆn 14/ pdwhˆm hrwyn bgˆn hyrzydw 15/ ˆw mn ˆstˆr pd ˆmwjdyf† °° 16/ hnjft mwqrˆnyg bˆsˆÌ 1 W.Sundermann kindly read a draft of this article and discussed many points with me. I wish to thank the participants at the conference, in particular J. Buckley, E. Hunter, S. Brock, B. Burtea and W.Witakowski, for the many points raised in the discussion. 2 KLIMA 1962, 476-9 reviews LIDZBARSKI 1918 in depth. 3 A facsimile of the manuscript is in SUNDERMANN 1996, Plate 8. 96 THE PARTHIAN MWQR}NYG B}S}Î The captions in lines 3 and 16 in red ink and preceded (l.3) and followed (l.16) by blank lines, mark the beginning and end of the text. The punctuation marks clearly indicate larger units in the text and show (together with the des- ignation basah ‘hymn’ in the captions) that we are dealing with a strophic text written continuously (‘as prose’)4. On this basis we can recognize the follow- ing strophes: Transcription: capt. nisarad mukranig/mawqranig(?) basa. 1a “abzirwanag isnohrag hem ce az babel zamig wisprixt hem. °° 1b wisprixt hem az zamig babel, ud pad rastift bar awestad hem.”°° °° 2a “sarawag(?) hem abzirwanag ce az babel zamig franaft hem. °° 2b franaft hem az zamig babel ku xrosan xros pad zambudig.”°° °° 3“o isma yazdan padwaham: ‘harwin bagan, hirzed5 o man astar pad amuzdift!'” °° capt. hanjaft mukranig/mawqranig(?) basah The text consists of three strophes, the first two of which are closely struc- tured in parallel fashion. Each of these two strophes contains a statement fol- lowed by a ce-clause. The ce- clause is repeated as a statement in the follow- ing. The first strophe is completed by a statement. The second strophe is com- pleted by a final clause, which seems to form the high point of the text. We have a scheme: strophe1: statement1 (identity), ce statement2 (movement/rest) statement2, statement3 (rest) strophe2: statement1 (identity), ce statement2 (movement) statement2, ku statement3 (activity) The first statement in each strophe is very similar: abzirwanag isnohrag hem and sarawag(?) hem abzirwanag since abzirwanag is the central word in each. Interestingly, the position of hem in the first statement of strophe 2 is noteworthy but it is probably caused by the need to have a unit of four 4 Quite a few verse texts are written in couplets (e.g. the Hymn Cycles [BOYCE 1954]), where the end of the written line is equivalent to the end of a half verse and the end of the stanza is marked by a blank line. Verse texts written as continuous text normally contain extensive punc- tuation to indicate the units of the text, since these do not regularly correspond to the end of the line in the manuscript. 5 The final w of hyrzydw is probably an attempt by the scribe to write hirzed together with the following o as hirzedo at the end of the line, but he then wrote ˆw at the beginning of the follow- ing line (BOYCE 1975, 162 note). D. DURKIN-MEISTERERNST 97 syllables (sarawag(?) hem) to match the four-syllable word, abzirwanag, in strophe 1 statement 1 with which it has exchanged positions. Looking at the content there is a clear drift in the two strophes from rest to movement. The choice of the word wisprixt hem ‘I sprouted’ to indicate grow- ing up combines elements of vigorous activity with the fact of staying in one place (rest). The construction with a prepositional phrase in two variants az babel zamig6 ‘from the land of Babel’ paves the way for the sentence az babel zamig franaft hem in two variants in strophe 2: ‘from the land of Babel I went forth’. Every statement except the last one in strophe 2 contains hem ‘I am’ either in identifying sentences or in constructions to denote the past tense. The last statement in strophe 2 changes to xrosan ‘that I may call’ in a final clause that stands out all the more. The third strophe does not follow the same structure: It contains an address to the gods and the text of that address. This strophe also diverges in length: It contains 12 words whereas strophes 1 and 2 have 20 and 19 words respec- tively. In terms of syllables the difference is 22 to twice 17 in strophe 1 and 17 followed by 167 syllables in strophe 2. In terms of metrical units (‘stresses’, of which each half-verse has two, marked above in bold) strophe 3 has nothing to match the pairs of two units in each half-verse in strophes 1 and 2. Whilst the distribution of stresses at the beginning of strophe 3 seems clear enough hirzed may be a unit on its own or may have to be taken together with o man astar. Either way no pattern conforming to that emerges in strophes 1 and 2. Translations: In Lidzbarski’s article Müller supplied a new translation in German (with- out the captions)8: Ein dankbarer Schüler bin ich, der aus Babel dem Land entsprossen ich bin. Entsprossen bin ich aus dem Lande Babel, und an der Wahrheit Pforte hab ich gestanden. Ein verkündender Schüler bin ich, der aus Babel dem Lande fortgezogen ich bin. 6 az babel zamig after ce at the beginning of a (second) half-verse, az zamig babel at the end of a (first) half-verse. This indicates that the position of long vowels within a half-verse is impor- tant. 7 Alternatively in 1a isnohrag might count as 2 instead of 3, thus giving 16 followed by 17 in strophe 1. BENVENISTE 1930, 219-20 counts half-verses of 8 giving twice 16 followed by twice 11. He reads ce (a)z with elision twice and also av(i)stad. In strophe 3 he reads (i)sma but retains the -u in hirzedu. 8 This supercedes his previous interlinear translation in MÜLLER 1904, 51 where he translates the first ce as ‘weil’, the second one as a relative ‘der’. The translation in KLIMKEIT 1989, 188 is substantially the same as MÜLLER apud LIDZBARSKI (except for ‘*junger’ instead of ‘verkün- dender’). 98 THE PARTHIAN MWQR}NYG B}S}Î Fortgezogen bin ich aus dem Lande Babel, auf daß ich einen Schrei schreie in der auf Erden gewordenen (Welt) [Oder: ‘zuschreie dem auf Erden gewordenen’]. Euch, (ihr) Götter, will ich anflehen, ihr Götter all, erlasset (mir) meine Sünde durch (eure)Verzeihung. Lidzbarski’s Aramaic version in Mandaean spelling (here transliterated) (LIDZBARSKI 1918, 502) is: tˆrmydˆ ˆnˆ mˆwdyˆnˆ ∂mn bˆbyl ˆrqˆ nyb†yt nyb†yt mn ˆrqˆ bˆbyl w}l bˆbˆ ∂kws†ˆ qˆmyt qˆrwyt ˆnˆ tˆrmydˆ ∂mn bˆbyl ˆrqˆ nypqyt nypqyt mn ˆrqˆ bˆbyl ∂{Òrwk qˆlˆ bˆlmˆ mynˆykwn ˆlˆhyˆ bˆyynˆ (mynˆykwn) ˆlˆhyˆ kwlˆykwn sbwqwlyˆ hˆ†ˆyˆy btyˆrwtˆ Lidzbarski recognizes the different character of the third strophe and by supplying the second mynˆykwn ‘from you’ reconstructs a parallel structure of three units with three words each: “From you gods I request From all you gods (lit.: (from you) gods, all of you): ‘Forgive my sins in compassion.’” However this is not quite what the Parthian text says: Here the preposition o indicates the object (indirect ‘to’ or direct) of the verb padwaham as opposed to myn ‘from’. In Parthian we also have the variance yazdan ‘gods’ and bagan ‘gods, lords’ for which Lidzbarski has uniformly ˆlˆhyˆ. English translation9: The hymn about Mukran/ of the mawqran(?) has started. “I am a grateful student, who sprouted from the land of Babel (= Babylonia). I sprouted from the land of Babel and have stood at the gate of truth.” “I am a young student, who went forth from the land of Babel. I went forth from the land of Babel, that I might call a call in the world.” “I beseech you gods (yazdan): ‘All (you) gods (bagan), forgive my sin(s) with compassion!’” The hymn about Mukran/ of the mawqran(?) has finished. 9 English translations of this text are contained in ASMUSSEN 1975, 8-9 and KLIMKEIT 1993, 148. Both ignore ce entirely, e.g. Klimkeit translates: ‘A thankful pupil am I (Mani). I am come from the land of Babylon….' D. DURKIN-MEISTERERNST 99 This translation differs from Müller’s in the interpretation of some words.
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