An Egyptian and his Soul
at trial
their tongues were not partial
their tongues were not partial
I opened my mouth to my soul that I might answer what he had said
This is much against me today whereas my soul has not quarreled with me before
it is more than an exaggeration
it is like I am ignored
may my soul not depart
may it attend to me in this
he will not be guilty
that he would distance himself from my body from a net of cord
and it will not happen due to him that he flees on the day of suffering
look my soul is disobeying me
while I do not listen to him he is dragging me toward death
before I have come to it
and is throwing me on the fire to burn me up
without him suffering therein
he should stay close to me on the day of suffering.
He should stand on yonder side like a praise singer does
This is one who goes forth by himself
my soul is ignorant about easing
the misery that is due to life and restrains me from death
before I have come to it.
The west gives me pleasure.
Is it suffering?
It is a turning point of life....trees fall
Trample on evil
cast aside my misery
May Thoth declare concerning me: "The gods are satisfied"
May knos defend me "a true scribe"
May Re hear my utterance
"Stop the ship!"
May Isdes defend me in the sacred hall.
For my need is heavy to weigh it on my behalf
It is pleasant that the gods should eliminate the concealment of my body.
What my soul said to me, Are you not a man? You are alive!
What do you achieve if you are concerned about life like a possessor of wealth?
I would say to someone about to go to that burial
you are taken away from leaping around
Without care
every criminal will say I will take you!
I answered
When you are dead your name still lives
that is a resting place attractive to the heart.
The west is a harbor, a voyage.
if my soul listens to me
my neglectful brother
with his heart in accord with mine
he will prosper
I will make him reach the west,
like someone in his pyramid
whose burial a survivor has attended.
I will create a breeze over your corpse
and you will make another soul in weariness envious
I will create a breeze so that it will not be freezing
and you will make another soul who is hot envious
I will drink water at the watering place.
I will heap up hay
and will make another soul who is hungry envious
But if you restrain me from a death in this form
you will not find a place on which you can rest in the west.
Be favourable my soul, my brother
to what will happen!
An heir who will make offerings
and stand at the tomb shaft
on the day of burial
will wish a bier
at the necropolis!
My soul opened his mouth to me that he might answer what I had said
"If you would call burial to mind,
it is heartache, it is bringing of tears, making a man sad
it is taking a man from his house,
left on a hill.
you cannot come up to see the sun.
Those who built in granite, who constructed
and completed beautiful pyramids in perfect realization
when the builders became gods, their altars were bare
like those of weary ones who are dead on a riverbank
for lack of a survivor
after the water has taken its toll and sunlight as well
only the fish of the waterside speak to them.
Listen to me as it is good to listen to people!
Have a good time and forget worries!
A commoner cultivates his plot,
he loads his harvest into a boat,
and pulls it himself as his feast is near
and the darkness of a north wind arises.
He waits for a ferry
as the sun sets and rises and meanwhile
his wife and children perish in a pond
surrounded at night by
crocodiles.
At last he sits down at dinner, says
"I do not weep for that mother
for whom there is no escape from the west
for another term on earth.
But I will grieve for her children,
who were crushed in the egg, who saw the face of Khenty
before they had lived."
"A commoner asks for dinner. His wife says to him,"
It will be supper.
He goes outside.
Until the moment that he returns to his house
He is like another man.
His wife pleads with him but he can't hear her.
Incapable of communication
I opened my mouth to my soul
that I might answer what he had said:
mY name reeks through you
more than the smell of bird droppings on summer days when the sky is hot
My name reeks through you
a haul of catfish on a fishing day when the sky is hot.
My name reeks through you,
more than the smell of ducks,
more than a covert of reeds full of fowl.
My name reeks through you
more than the smell of fishermen, more than the creeks of marshes they have fished
My name reeks through you
more than the smell of crocodiles
more than sitting on beaches of crocodiles.
My name reeks through you
more than the smell of a wife about whom a lie has been told
my name reeks through you
more than a diligent child about whom is said, "He belongs to his rival"
My name reeks through you,
city of a sovereign
that conspires to rebel when his back is turned
Whom can I talk to today?
Hearts are greedy
and every man is stealing things from his fellow.
Kindness has vanished
and rudeness has descended upon everyone.
Whom can I talk to today?
One is contented with evil
and goodness is cast on the ground everywhere
whom can I talk to today?
Who should enrage a man by his ill deed
who makes everyone laugh by his evil wrongdoing.
Whom can I talk to today?
One steals, every man is robbing his fellow.
Whom can I talk to today?
The villian is an intimate friend
and the brother with whom one dealt has become an enemy.
Whomcan I talk to today?
Yesterday is not remembered,
one does not help now who has given help.
Whom can I talk to today?
Brothers are evil
and one turns to strangers for honesty.
whom can I talk to today?
Faces are blank,
every man has his face downcast concerning his brothers.
Whom can I talk to today?
Hearts have become greedy
and there is no man's heart on which one may rely.
Whom can I talk to today.
None are righteous
and the land is left to evildoers.
Whom can I talk to today?
An intimate friend is lacking
and one turns to a stranger to complain to.
Whom can I talk to today?
None is content there,
and he with whom one walked is no more.
Whom can I talk to today?
I'm laden with misery for lack of an intimate friend.
Whom can I talk to today?
The evil that scourges the earth is without end.
Death is in my sight today. a cure of a sick man,
like going outside after confinement
Death is in my sight today.
like the smell of myrrh,
like sitting under a sail on a windy day.
Death is in my sight today.
Like the smell of lotus flowers, like sitting on the shore of drunkenness.
Death is in my sight today,
like a path washed by rain,
like a man's coming home from an expedition.
Death is in my sight today
like the sky's clearing,
like a man's grasping what he didn't know before
Death is in my sight today,
like a man's longing to see home
after he has spent many years in captivity.
But who is there
a god who lives because of punishing the evil of one who does it.
But who is there
stands in a boat because of letting choice offerings be given to the temples
But who is there
a wise man who cannot be turned away,
what my soul said to me,
"Put whining on a peg, o my comrade, my brother!
May you give offerings upon a brazier
In order to reachfor a life as you described.
Desire me here and dismiss the west!
But desire to reach the west when your body buried.
I will alight when you become weary,
and then we'll harbour together.
papyrus 3024 (2500-1990 b.c.e.)
