Michael Hoffen is a new author, and like him, the main character of his book is a teenager. But there’s quite an age gap between them — about 4,000 years. That’s because Hoffen brought to life the story of a young Egyptian from ancient times named Pepi, whose father, Kheti, is intent on getting his son a job in the royal court.
迈克尔·霍芬是一位新作家，和他一样，他的书的主角也是一位青少年。但他们之间有相当大的年龄差距——大约4000岁。这是因为霍芬将一个名叫佩皮的古埃及年轻人的故事演绎得栩栩如生，他的父亲凯提一心要让儿子在宫廷里谋得一份工作。
Hoffen, who has been translating ancient texts since middle school, became fascinated by a 4,000-year-old or so piece of literature from ancient Egypt’s Middle Kingdom known as The Instruction of Khety. The Instruction was written on papyrus, one of the earliest writing materials, that was typically made from reeds (芦苇). Papyruses have yielded vast amounts of information about ancient societies from the Judean tribes, Egypt, Greece, and Classical Rome.
霍芬从中学起就开始翻译古代文本，他被一篇有4000多年历史的古埃及中王国文学作品《The Instruction of Khety》迷住了。该作品是在纸莎草上写的，纸莎草是最早的书写材料之一，通常由芦苇制成。可以从纸莎草中获取大量的犹太部落、埃及、希腊和古罗马关于古代社会的信息。
Under the guidance and teamwork of his two co-authors, Egyptologists Casey and Jen Thum, Hoffen spent three-and-a-half years translating hieroglyphics (象形字) into modern-day prose and gathering images to tell the story of Kheti and Pepi. Put together, he published a book called Be A Scribe! Working for a Better Life in Ancient Egypt.
埃及学家Casey和Jen Thum是他的两位合著者，在他们的指导和团队合作下，霍芬花了三年半的时间将象形文字翻译成现代散文，并收集图像来讲述Kheti和Pepi的故事。总之，他出版了一本名为《Be A Scribe! Working for a Better Life in Ancient Egypt》。
This young author, a scribe (抄写员) himself, shows just how little the human condition has changed in thousands of years. Parents still want the best for their children, and teenagers face important decisions as they set out on their career paths — all of which readers can enjoy with impressive illustrations and imagery direct from Egyptian antiquities (古物).
这位年轻的作家本身就是一名抄写员，他展示了数千年来人类状况的变化是多么的小。父母仍然希望孩子得到最好的，青少年在踏上职业道路时面临着重要的决定——读者可以直接从埃及文物中欣赏到令人印象深刻的插图和图像。
Amy Chua, Yale Law professor, called the book a “marvel” and said she “could not put it down.” “Young people will wolf it down without realizing they are learning. And even adults with advanced degrees will find themselves absorbed, educated, and fascinated by this story of an Egyptian father giving life advice to his teenage son — and astonished at how little parenting has changed for thousands of years.”
耶鲁大学法学教授Amy Chua称这本书为 “奇迹”，并说她 “无法放下”。“年轻人会在没有意识到自己正在学习的情况下将其"狼吞虎咽"。即使是拥有高等学位的成年人也会发现自己消化，受到教育，被这个埃及父亲给他十几岁的儿子提供生活建议的故事所吸引，并惊讶于几千年来养育子女的变化如此之小。
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