Wider Ancient Witness Archive · 4.1 Ancient Near Eastern Wisdom Background Archive
Layer 4 — Wider Archive
The Harper’s Songs
This text is included as a comparative, historical, philosophical, ritual, textual, or fragmentary witness. It is not presented as part of the Restored Bible.
The Harper’s Songs
[Songs sung at Egyptian feasts, set in the tombs, on the shortness of life and the joy of the present day.]
Generations pass away,
and others remain, since the time of the ancestors.
The gods who lived before rest in their tombs;
the noble and the blessed too are buried in their tombs.
Those who built houses — their places are no more.
What has become of them?
I have heard the words of Imhotep and Hardedef, whose sayings are on every tongue; yet where are their dwellings now? Their walls are broken, their places gone, as though they had never been. No one comes back from there to tell us how they fare, to set our hearts at ease, until we ourselves go to the place where they have gone.
So let your heart be glad,
that it may forget that men will mourn you.
Follow your heart while you live;
put myrrh on your head,
clothe yourself in fine linen,
and anoint yourself with the true wonders of the gods.
Increase your joys, and let your heart not sink.
Follow your heart and your happiness;
do your things on earth as your heart commands,
until that day of mourning comes for you.
Make holiday, and do not weary of it;
for no one can take his goods with him,
and no one who goes there comes back again.