In the camp in Libya, Sinuhe overhears messengers bringing the news of the king's death to the prince. His reaction is the most vivid scene of the tale, and the journey that follows crosses half the map of the Near East.
🔑 Key idea
Sinuhe panics and flees: through the Delta, past the border forts called the Walls of the Ruler, across the desert where he nearly dies of thirst, to Byblos and then Qedem, and finally to Upper Retjenu, where the ruler Amunenshi welcomes him: nfr tw ḥnꜥ=j sḏm=k r n kmt "you will fare well with me; you will hear the speech of Egypt".
💡 Why it works
The tale never fully explains why he ran. He says his heart failed him; he later insists to the new king that it was like a dream. Many readers think the vagueness is the point: a loyal official, caught in a moment of terror, acts against everything his upbringing taught him and spends the rest of the story finding his way back to Egypt and to a proper burial.
The eastern Delta, Sinai and the Levant. Sinuhe set out for Byblos on the coast, then turned back to Qedem; Upper Retjenu lay inland.nfr tw, an adjectival sentence: the adjective, then the dependent pronoun "you", ṯw, here in its later spelling tw.
Amunenshi's welcome. He has Egyptians with him, so Sinuhe will hear his own language.
a sḏm=f looking ahead; r "mouth, speech", kmt "Egypt"
✏️ Worked example: Read the welcome
Translate sḏm=k r n kmt.
sḏm=k: a sḏm=f with =k "you"; in a promise it looks ahead: "you will hear".
r n kmt: "the mouth of Egypt", an indirect genitive (The Indirect Genitive), meaning its language.
Answer: "You will hear the speech of Egypt."
✏️ Worked example: Who is speaking?
In the account of the flight, whom does every =j refer to?
The tale is told in the first person by Sinuhe.
So =j "I, me, my" is Sinuhe, unless a speech is quoted.
Answer: Sinuhe, except inside quoted speeches.
The flight is told with quick verbs, many of them sḏm.n=f forms with =j: he hides in a bush, crosses water at night, passes the forts, and walks until he collapses with thirst. A sheikh of the herdsmen, who had been in Egypt and recognized him, gives him water and boiled milk. That act of kindness turns the story from flight to a new life abroad.
⚠️ Common mistake
Losing track of who is speaking. The narrative is Sinuhe's, but it quotes others, such as Amunenshi, who speak to Sinuhe as =k "you". Check: mark every =j as Sinuhe in the narrative; when a speech begins (often after ḏd.n=f or ḏd.jn=f "then he said"), switch to the speaker's point of view.
Practice
Pass with 3 right answers, the last 2 in a row. Each right answer earns 3 XP.