DIALOGUE OF A MAN WITH HIS SOUL

I opened my mouth to my soul, that I might answer what it had said: “This is too much for me today, that
my soul no (longer) talks with me. It is really too great to be exaggerated. It is like abandoning me. Let
[not] my soul go away; it should wait for me because of. . . . There is no competent person who deserts on
the day of misfortune. Behold, my soul wrongs me, (but) I do not listen to it, dragging myself toward death
before I come to it and casting (myself) upon the fire to burn myself up. . . . May it be near to me on the
day of misfortune and wait on that side. . . . My soul is stupid to (try to) win over one wretched over life
and delay me from death before I come to it. Make the West pleasant for me! Is that (so) bad? Life is a
circumscribed period: (even) the trees must fall. Trample down wrongs—(yet) my wretchedness endures.
Let Thoth, who propitiates the gods, judge me. Let Khonsu, the scribe in truth, defend me. Let Re,
who pilots the sun barque, hear my speech. Let Isdes. . .defend me. My wretchedness is heavy. . . . Pleasant
would be the defense of a god for the secrets of my body.”

What my soul said to me: “Art thou not a man? Art thou. . .whilst thou livest? What is thy goal? Thou art
concerned with [burial] like a possessor of wealth!”

I said: “I have not departed as long as these things are neglected. He who carries (men) off forcibly will
take, without caring about thee, (like) any criminal saying: ‘I shall carry thee off, for thy (fate) is still
death, (though) thy name may live.’ (But) yonder is a place for setting down, the guide of the heart; the
West is home. . . . If my soul will listen to me, an in[noc]ent man, and its heart agrees with me, it will be
fortunate. (Then) I shall make it reach the West like one who is in his pyramid, at whose burial a survivor
has stood. I shall make a shelter [over] thy corpse, (so that) thou mayest scorn another soul as inert. I shall
make a shelter—now it must not be (too) cool—(so that) thou mayest scorn another soul which is (too)
hot. I shall drink at the watering place and shall. . ., (so that) thou mayest scorn another soul which is
hungry. If thou delayest me from a death of this fashion, thou wilt not find a place where thou canst settle
down in the West. (So) be [patient], my soul and my brother, until my heir has appeared, he who will make
offerings and will stand at the grave on the day of burial, so that he may prepare the bed of the cemetery.”

My soul opened its mouth to me, that it might answer what I had said: “If thou art thinking of burial that
is heart’s distress. It is a bringing of tears, making a man sad. It is taking a man out of his house, (so that)
he is left on the hillside, (whence) thou shalt never go up above that thou mightest see the suns. They who
build in granite and who hew out chambers in a pyramid, good men in good work, as soon as the builders
have become gods, their offering-stones are as bare, for lack of a survivor, as (those of) the weary ones,
the dead on the dyke—the waters take hold of an end of him, and the sunlight as well, and the fish of the
water-banks talk to them. Listen to me. Behold, it is good for men to listen. Pursue the happy day and
forget care!

“The poor man plows his plot of ground and loads his harvest into a ship’s hold. He makes the journey
by towing (the boat), (because) his feast day is approaching. When he sees the forthcoming of an evening
of high water, he is vigilant in the ship when Re retires, (and so) comes out (safely), with his wife. (But)
his children are lost on the lake, treacherous with crocodiles in the night. At last he sits down, when he can
take part in speech, saying: ‘I am not weeping for that girl, (although) there is no coming forth from the
West for her, for another (time) on earth. (But) I am concerned about her (unborn) children, broken in the
egg, who saw the face of the crocodile-god before they had (even) lived!’

“The poor man asks for an afternoon meal, (but) his wife says to him: “It’s for supper!’ He goes out-of-
doors to grumble for a while. If he comes back into the house and is like another man, his wife is (still)
experienced in him: that he does not listen to her (but) grumbles, unresponsive to communications.” I
opened my mouth to my soul, that I might answer what it had said:

Behold, my name will reek through thee

More than the stench of bird-droppings
On summer days, when the sky is hot.
Behold, my name will reek through thee
(More than) a fish-handler
On the day of the catch, when the sky is hot.
Behold, my name will reek through thee
More than the stench of bird-droppings,
More than a covert of reeds with waterfowl.
Behold, my name will reek through thee
More than the stench of fisherman,
More than the stagnant pools which they have fished.
Behold, my name will reek through thee
More than the stench of crocodiles,
More than sitting in the assembly among the crocodiles.
Behold, my name will reek through thee
More than a (married) woman
Against whom a lie has been told because of a man.
Behold, my name will reek through thee
 More than a sturdy boy of whom it is said:
“He belongs to his rival!”
Behold, my name will reek through thee
(More than) a treacherous town, which plots rebellion,
Of which (only) the outside can be seen.
***

To whom can I speak today?

(One’s) fellows are evil;
The friends of today do not love.
To whom can I speak today?
Hearts are rapacious:
Every man seizes his fellow’s goods.
(To whom can I speak today?)
The gentle man has perished,
(But) the violent man has access to everybody.
To whom can I speak today?
(Even) the calm of face is wicked;
Goodness is rejected everywhere.
To whom can I speak today?
(Though) a man should arouse wrath by his evil character,
He (only) stirs everyone to laughter, (so) wicked is his sin.
To whom can I speak today?
Men are plundering;
Every man seizes his fellow’s (goods).
To whom can I speak today?
The foul friend is an intimate,
(But) a brother, with whom one worked, has become an enemy.
To whom can I speak today?
No one thinks of yesterday;
No one at this time acts for him who has acted.
To whom can I speak today?
(One’s) fellows are evil;
One has recourse to strangers for uprightness of heart.
To whom can I speak today?
Faces have disappeared:
 Every man has a downcast face toward his fellows.
To whom can I speak today?
Hearts are rapacious;
No man has a heart upon which one may rely.
To whom can I speak today?
There are no righteous;
The land is left to those who do wrong.
To whom can I speak today?
There is lack of an intimate (friend);
One has recourse to an unknown to complain to him.
To whom can I speak today?
There is no one contented of heart;
That man with whom one went, he no (longer) exists.
To whom can I speak today?
I am laden with wretchedness
For lack of an intimate (friend).
To whom can I speak today?
The sin which treads the earth,
It has no end.
Death is in my sight today
(Like) the recovery of a sick man,
Like going out into the open after a confinement.
Death is in my sight today
Like the odor of myrrh
Like sitting under an awning on a breezy day.
Death is in my sight today
Like the odor of lotus blossoms,
Like sitting on the bank of drunkenness.
Death is in my sight today
Like the passing away of rain,
Like the return of men to their houses from an expedition.
Death is in my sight today
Like the clearing of the sky,
Like a man fowling thereby for what he knew not.
Death is in my sight today
 Like the longing of a man to see his house (again),
After he has spent many years held in captivity.
Why surely, he who is yonder
Will be a living god,
Punishing a sin of him who commits it.
Why surely, he who is yonder
Will stand in the barque of the sun,
Causing that the choicest (offerings) therein be given to the temples.
Why surely, he who is yonder
Will be a man of wisdom,
Not hindered from appealing to Re when he speaks.

What my soul said to me: “Set mourning aside, thou who belongest to me, my brother! (Although) thou
be offered up on the brazier, (still) thou shalt cling to life, as thou sayest. Whether it be desirable that I
(remain) here (because) thou hast rejected the West, or whether it be desirable that thou reach the West
and thy body join the earth, I shall come to rest after thou hast relaxed (in death). Thus we shall make a
home together.”

It has come (to its end), its beginning to its end, as found in writing.

Translated by:

Miriam Lichtheim