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Michael R Burch Apr 2020
Musings at Giza
by Michael R. Burch

In deepening pools of shadows lies
the Sphinx, and men still fear his eyes.
Though centuries have passed, he waits.
Egyptians gather at the gates.

Great pyramids, the looted tombs
—how still and desolate their wombs!—
await sarcophagi of kings.
From eons past, a hammer rings.

Was Cleopatra's litter borne
along these streets now bleak, forlorn?
Did Pharaohs clad in purple ride
fierce stallions through a human tide?

Did Bocchoris here mete his law
from distant Kush to Saqqarah?
or Tutankhamen here once smile
upon the children of the Nile?

or Nefertiti ever rise
with wild abandon in her eyes
to gaze across this arid plain
and cry, “Great Isis, live again!”

Published by Golden Isis and The Eclectic Muse

Keywords/Tags: Ancient, Egypt, Giza, Sphinx, pyramids, tombs, sarcophagi, Cleopatra, pharaohs, Bocchoris, Kush, Saqqarah, Tutankhamen, Nile, Nefertiti, Isis



ANCIENT EGYPTIAN POETRY TRANSLATIONS

These are my modern English translations of ancient Egyptian poems, love lyrics and Harper's songs.

An Ancient Egyptian Love Lyric (circa 1085-570 BC)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Is there anything sweeter than these hours of love,
when we're together, and my heart races?
For what is better than embracing and fondling
when you visit me and we surrender to delights?

If you reach to caress my thigh,
I will offer you my breast also —
it's soft; it won't jab you or ****** you away!

Will you leave me because you're hungry?
Are you ruled by your belly?
Will you leave me because you need something to wear?
I have chests full of fine linen!
Will you leave me because you're thirsty?
Here, **** my *******! They're full to overflowing, and all for you!

I glory in the hours of our embracings;
my joy is incalculable!

The thrill of your love spreads through my body
like honey in water,
like a drug mixed with spices,
like wine mingled with water.

Oh, that you would speed to see your sister
like a stallion in heat, like a bull to his heifer!
For the heavens have granted us love like flames igniting straw,
desire like the falcon's free-falling frenzy!



Egyptian Love Song
(circa the 13th or 14th century BC)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Lover, let’s slip down to the pond;
I’ll bathe while you watch me from the nearest bank.
I’ll wear my sexiest swimsuit, just for you,
made of sheer linen, fit for a princess!
Come, see how it looks when it’s wet!
Can I coax you to wade in with me?
To let the cool water surround us?
Then I’ll dive way down deep, just for you,
and come up dripping,
letting you feast your eyes
on the little pink fish I’ve found.
Then I’ll say, standing there in the shallows:
"Look at my little pink fish, love,
as I hold it in my hand.
See how my fingers caress it,
slipping down its sides, then inside!
See how it wiggles?"
But then I’ll giggle softly and sigh,
my eyes bright with your seeing:
It’s a gift, my love, no more words!
Come closer and see ...
it’s all me!



Ancient Egyptian Harper’s Songs

The first carpe diem or "seize the day" poems may be the various versions of the ancient Egyptian "Harper's Song" (or "Song of the Harper"). These may also be the oldest "ubi sunt" or "where are they now" poems. Such poems were inscribed in Egyptian tombs along with the image of a blind man playing a harp. Thus it is believed these were songs performed during funeral services for the deceased. Versions of the "Harper's Song" found in tombs of the Old Kingdom (c. 2686-2181 BC) tend to be short and traditional in regard to the afterlife (i.e., affirmative). Middle Kingdom (c. 2055-1786 BC) and New Kingdom (1539-1075 BC) versions tend to be longer and sometimes encourage listeners to "seize the day" while rejecting the more traditional Egyptian view of eternity (for instance, satirizing large funerary monuments and saying possessions cannot be taken into the afterlife). Such updated versions of the "Harper's Song" include "Harper's Song: Tomb of Neferhotep" and " Harper's Song: Tomb of Inherkhawy." These are my personal favorites of both genres ...

This song comes from a tomb which contains an image of Djehutiemheb and Hedjmetmut seated at an offering table while their son, dressed as a priest, pours libations and burning incense before them. It seems the song may be a blessing being voiced by the son, as the text appears before his representation.

Harper's Song: Tomb of Djehutiemheb
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

... The sky is opened for you,
the earth opened for you,
for you the good path leads into the Necropolis.
You enter and exit like Re.
You stride unhindered like the Lords of Eternity ...



This song from the funerary stela of Iki depicts the deceased sitting at an offering table with his wife, with the rotund harpist Neferhotep sitting on the other side of the table. Neferhotep was one of the earliest known Egyptian singer/harpists. His portrait and his song were included on the stela of a man named Iki.

Harper's Song: Tomb of Iki
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

O tomb, you were prepared for a festival,
your foundations anchored in happiness!
The harpist Neferhotep, son of Henu.

*

The stela of Nebankh from Abydos contains a Harper's Song with the deceased depicted sitting at an offering table with the harpist squatting before him:

Harper's Song: Tomb of Nebankh
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Tjeniaa the singer says:
Now you are seated securely in eternity,
in your eternal monument!
Your tomb is filled with food-offerings
and complete with every fitting thing.
Your soul is with you
and will never desert you,
Royal Treasurer and Seal-Bearer, Nebankh!
The sweet north wind is now your breath!
So says the honorable singer Tjeniaa,
whom he loved and who keeps his name alive
by singing to his soul every day.



Interestingly, the three Harper's songs found in the tomb of the priest Neferhotep seem to display very different viewpoints about the afterlife, if we can take the first two to be saying that death is peaceful because no one is doing anything ...

Harper's Song: Tomb of Neferhotep
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

I.
I have heard songs inscribed in ancient tombs,
extolling earth-life while belittling the Beyond ...
but why condemn the kingdom of Eternity,
the just and the fair,
which holds no terrors?

II.
Death abhors violence: no man there arms himself against his brother.
No one rebels in that peaceful kingdom.
All our ancestors rest there, since man’s earliest days;
the multitudes assemble there, every one,
for none may tarry overlong in the land of Egypt.
There is no one who will not cross over.

III.
Earth-life is no more than the span of a dream,
but fair welcomes are given when one reaches the West.



Harper's Song: Tomb of Intef
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

(from the tomb of the Pharaoh Intef)

Here lies a happy prince
because death is the kindest fate.

One generation passes, another remains:
so it has been since our eldest ancestors.

Now those who were once "gods" rest in their sepulchers
along with other nobles
and those who built their tombs.

Their palaces are gone,
and what has become of them?

What of the words of Imhotep and Hardedef,
whose sayings are still recited entire?

What of their palaces?
Their walls have collapsed into ruins,
their halls have vanished
as if they never existed!

And no one returns from that realm
to inform us of their state
or to calm our fears.
We remain in the dark until we join them ...

Hence, rejoice with happy hearts!
It is best to forget: heedlessness is happiness!
Humor your hearts as long as you live!

Perfume your hair with myrrh,
adorn yourself in your finest linens,
anoint yourself with the costliest oils, fit for a god,
heap up your treasures here on earth!

Let your heart remain buoyant! Don't let it sink!
Humor your heart and find happiness!
Here on earth, do as your heart demands!

What use is mourning,
when weary-hearted Osiris pays tears no heed?

Weeping and wailing spares no man from the grave,
so make every day your holiday. Never tire of joy's pursuits!
Because no one is allowed to take his possessions with him
and none who departs ever returns!

This song, also known as “The Lay of the Harper,” appears in the tomb of Paatenemheb, where the introductory line says it was copied from the tomb of a King Intef (a name used by several kings from 11th and 17th dynasties). The poem is also preserved in the Ramesside New Kingdom Harris 500 papyrus. These works are accepted by scholars as being a copy of a genuine Middle Kingdom text.

Keywords/Tags: Egypt, Egyptian, poem, poems, poetry, translation, translations, English, harper, harpers songs, love poems, love songs, love lyrics
Ken Pepiton Feb 2023
Magnification and magic, majesty and jest, me?

My first thought on waking, or reaction acknowledging,
science, if any thing is sharp, it was made to become so.

Crystal vision, any reader in this medium has,
an attainment,
merit worn
by knowing
words hold
thoughts and thoughts occur in superstringy gnosisnot.

Over time, dust is drawn to the tangled web that we wove.
In visibility,
winds paint the Granite wall my bubble occupies,
melting the shallow snow,

enough for a California snowday. My mileau,
my conditioning reflexive zone,
bouncing a thought between reading minds morphing
wishes once thoughts,
aimed
as it were,
at hungry wolves, or troglodytes.

- My Grandfather, Caleb Boyett,
- has blessed me,
- no quest set before has not called
- on know how knots tie and solder mends
- learned from watching him, as a child.
- I was reared in a junk yard,
- with a bunch of happy dogs.

Stela, not
"Stella" from the common programing relative
to Hollywood, see
the sign.

Big-time, Robbie, big time, SHOW
bidness,
be kind.

I don't give a damnabouda greenback dollar,
spent it fast as I could,
or woulda, had I ever sold what must be sold,
to accrue money problems,
or secret stores to protect,
sense of will,
sense of pur- in advance guarding the niche
posed
under superpositioned words we all react on,

pinch of salt,
taken from the spiritual conception developed
as many children must have been set up,
to spill some salt,
so elders could guage,
measure
reaction to instruction, "toss a pinch of the problem
                over your left shoulder-
                to ward
off any malicious salt protectors mind cry.

Not a lie. In my realm, stories reign supreme,
and those who learn to tell them without lying
seldom prosper
as per standard class-ification projects,
historically called civil-ization.

-- so that's my que, 2023, snow melt negative space
patterns evoke… that word again,
several times today, 10:34
took pictures of the patterns in the snow
that look similar to some level of me,
to rock art in

Time and chance, perhaps I needed the provocation,
common senses, all agree, things occur with no ..... lost threads

Internet ties,
intellectual kin,
in the wildering edgewise meandering mind
we share
in time
we spend thinking thank you for reading my mind.
The we we have is leavenishly small. Mind share, is too rare to price.
Ken Pepiton Mar 6
----------------------
As living pillow lava
illuminating
marginal
empty
space on

Silk paper,
in rolls one screen wide,
indefinitely longer than possible
imagine images graven and
impressed
into living ingots,
rolled steel messaging service
-- whose image and superscription

Duty to caste and creed, exist,
trust true rest once, just wait,

wonder if what ever ift began rifts
in concentrated will, chaos spun,
to its gravitational balance point,

seventh grade science reseen using
Casini visions made plain as day,

there's the whole truth we,
there's where Earthian

mind hats are woven from reeds
and banded with old aluminum cans

to perceive crop circles apophenetically

like it don't mean nothin'

upon the tablets as such were
when rocks were used
to witness, what our father's agreed,

to maintain holy order,
by all means

the stela whereby we esteem Israel
and shoe respect for adaptability
is ra' el o heem da'ath
ramify as above so below,
fundamental first mind form

adverse, ra' el and cursyerdialect ics
integrated circuit sets still feel disconnected

can people enjoy paying this much attention?

Alienating Israeli wrestling fans
rallying energetically sympatico

behind DOGE city indexed chaos
making peace using law and order

without Marshall Dillon
without any guns,
without eggs… is ra' aggression legal,

has the law no sword, is the public mind,
the military mind, or the career mind,
or the discombobulated phucit list

let's cruise and act as if we are all so rich,
that many good jobs in the service supply

industry of leisure, on credit, ceartainly,

who cares has not cast all chares on Christ,
the character, from Sunday school

felt board good news, made from first news,

my momma told me, where Christmas came from,

because I knew already between holidays
in 1954 what Arbor Day was for,
and Thanksgiving was because of, 11/11

my Uncle Malcom's army won the war
to end all wars, just

a while before my daddy's friends won the one
that ended many hopes for peace,

as Daddy Warbucks was a role model hero,
as solid as Clark Kent and Snuffy Smith,

time's a wastin' wrestle or tap, Daysman call

as three phonemes long universal is ra' towbd
being now default present and aware

peace
in mind guarded lightly
with a will

not my own, but better
at proving worths
of mumblings most pythia slur or stutter…
prophets ambiguosity
a knack honed,
to glistering
tip on TOE
always
the guild
of interpreters are sorted out,
by age five, first accurate shape
on a plain,

I drew a boot, the sorters saw,
I did not trace it,
I drew it, so then,

at that memory, work was proven,
a mind hat wearer, same radiation,

that killed two sisters and drove mom mad,

made me and my demented sister telepaths,
imagine that.

flat as a skipping stone,
rerippling the vision

you, there,
tell us where we've got to…

we been demented… do. Oh, dear

those hosts attending our absolutions,
none think themselves involved, voluntary

sacrifice attention
to the news fed them, yes,
chosing
to pay attention
to what a few million, must believe

slightly like mindedly smiling,
thinking Jesus winked, and Uncle Mike laughed,

folks who were born citizens, exceptionally lucky,

to be so born,
in the land
of the armed and the free

whose hearts and minds believe, in weform,

as commonly we all think the we
with me in it,
init
runs my inclusion, this weform
with us as plural I.
W
El yes we see him, who is spirit,
gott to be good looking cause he so hard to see

right now,
time and times and half a time

and then, when your side faced mine, eye to eye,

first one slightly smiles and kindly winks, oaths

expression, secret nods to a standard, allied

pledged,
in innocent order
in rank and file drill,

as the flag is raised, each child stands,

and the solemnity
of the picture show rises,

all stand
at attention,
paying all wonder as we
all say
at once,
aloud,

I, we all, I
pledge, which is same as an oath or a vow,

how would you know that,
at age six, well, think it,

I tell it like I lived
to be old,
before I learned how verbs work,

confirming affirmations leads
to solid state, unforgetable instants
too costly
to condemn
to the heaps, so

we made up new pages
to find things, so
set right dexterously
indexing so

simple a five year old child can wonder if it
could be pretend make believe, what ifery,
just
so not heresy or hypocrisy, but true bare
not full of nasty wanna fight or bet words,

no, here we go
to re al ize able levels, cognate

worldwidewebian cut and paste or ask an AI,
what does this say
in Hausa, hey,
how about in Spanish, no se
same thing it says in English, war and greed,

are both diseases, and experience proves
war has never been used
to make things better,

at runny nose cold reality
in a roaring March,
2025,
and we are all still…

breathing and feeling Earthian,
on the living planet gravity bound

to the expanding universe… bubbling by
while growing knowing uses thought
how, I just became old one day,
and have continued being so, ever sense.

Timing,
from the audience
at stage edge,

a bardic bubble stage, Earth, seen from Saturn,

all the wars that ever were, have been excused,

all the wars that are now in use, have no excuse.

We can agree,
we need not compete,
we occupy the only living planet

Peace at the personal no shame
true mind we make up as this we
realized by all involved, experienced,
seeded
wisdom
without patience, really experienced,

well,
as one past that point,
some long while,
passed through in a minute
half a century plus half a decade,
and about five hours from today, once.\

Mark a trader's traditional promise,
for your attention
at second thought

if the sign says buyer beware,
if we seem
to be seen as buying

or vieing
for other's attention, feeling
fi, delphic attention strange nous
seen, thinking all the world's a stage,

your line.
Accepting the whole earth as stage lit and un, none perceive an audience,

we each have lines... some we cross, some we stand behind... some we make.
Mr Nemó Apr 22
“Það er alltaf einhver að deyja / There’s always someone dying.

Og alltaf einhver að fæðast / And always someone being born.

Sumir fæðast aldrei, þora því ekki / Some never make it—never dare.

Þora EKKI að láta drauminn sinn rætast – Framkallast / Not daring to light the torch.

Það er eitt stærsta verkefni lífsins / It is one of life’s biggest projects.

En flestir átta sig ekki á því, taka ekki eftir því / And most don’t get it—
Og svo er það of seint. / Until it’s already too late.

Láta samfélagið stela af sér sjálfs-myndinni; / Letting society steal their image;
Væntingar samfélagsins ráðast gegn þeim – / Or the expectations of society –

En alltaf er eitthvað að deyja, / And always something dying,

og eitthvað nýtt að fæðast. / And something else trying to get born.

Plís, ekki verða þjáður fáviti eins og ég. / Please, don’t become a tortured fool like me.”

Leifðu þér að fæðast / allow yourself to be born

— The End —