[Frequently in the tombs is figured a scene in which a harper
plays before the deceased. His song is ever on the same theme:
Enjoy life while it lasts, for all things pass away, and are
succeeded by others which also perish in their turn. Such were
the encouragements to conviviality which the Egyptians put into
the mouths of their minstrels.
One of these songs was apparently engraved in front of the
figure of a harper in the tomb or pyramid of King Antef (of the
XIth or perhaps XIIIth Dynasty, not less than 2000 B.C.), and
a copy of it has been handed down to us on a papyrus of the
XVIIIth Dynasty: fragments of the same song are moreover
preserved at Leyden on slabs from a tomb of the same period.
Part of another song of the same kind may be read on the walls
of the fine tomb of Neferhetep at Thebes (_temp._ XVIIIth
Dynasty). This song was a long one, but the latter part of it
is now mutilated and hopelessly destroyed; yet enough of the
sequel remains to show that it rose to a somewhat higher level
of teaching than the first song, and counseled men to feed the
poor and to win a good name to leave behind them after death.
The songs seem to fall naturally into stanzas of ten lines
each, though the inscriptions and papyri on which they are
preserved to us are not punctuated to indicate these divisions.
In the first song the ten lines fall readily into pairs, thus
producing five-line stanzas.]
I
_Songs which are in the tomb of King Antef, justified, which are in
front of the singer on the harp_
Happy is this good lord! | A goodly fate is spoiled.
One body passeth | and others are set up since the time of the
ancestors.
The gods[227] who were aforetime | rest in their sepulchres,
So also the nobles glorified | buried in their sepulchres.
Palaces are built and their places are not | behold what hath been
done with them!
I have heard the words of Imhetep and Herdedef | who spake thus
continually in their sayings:
"Behold their places, their walls are ruined | their places are not,
as though they had not been.
None cometh thence to tell their lot | to tell their estate,
To strengthen our hearts | until ye approach the place to which they
have gone."
Be thou of good cheer thereat | [as for me] my heart faileth me in
singing thy dirge.
Follow thy heart so long as thou existest | put frankincense on thy
head;
Be clothed in fine linen, be anointed with pure ben oil | things fit
for a god.
Enjoy thyself beyond measure | let not thy heart faint.
Follow thy desire and thy happiness while thou art on earth | fret not
thy heart till cometh to thee that day of lamentations.
The Still-of-Heart heareth not their lamentations | the heart of a man
in the pit taketh no part in mourning.
With radiant face, make a good day,[228]
And rest not on it.
Behold, it is not given to a man to carry his goods with him!
Behold, there is none who hath gone,
And cometh back hither again!