To Whom Can I Speak Today?

I found this back in high school when I got interested in Egyptology, probably due to rewatching "Raiders of the Lost Ark." Here's the end section:

Debate Between a Man Tired of Life and His Soul (Excerpt)

Anonymous, trans. John L. Foster 

 I opened my mouth to my soul that I might answer what it had said:
 "Behold, my name is detested,
 Behold, more than the smell of vultures
 On a summer's day when the sky is hot.
 Behold, my name is detested,
 Behold, [more than the smell of] a catch of fish
 On a day of catching when the sky is hot.
 Behold, my name is detested,
 Behold, more than the smell of ducks,
 More than a covert of reeds full of waterfowl.
 Behold, my name is detested,
 Behold, more than the smell of fishermen,
 More than the creeks of the marshes where they have fished.
 Behold, my name is detested,
 Behold, more than the smell of crocodiles,
 More than sitting by sandbanks full of crocodiles.
 Behold, my name is detested,
 Behold, more than a woman
 About whom lies are told to a man.
 Behold, my name is detested,
 Behold, more than a sturdy child
 Of whom it is said: "he belongs to his rival."
 Behold, my name is detested,
 Behold, [more than] a town belonging to the monarch
 Which mutters sedition when his back is turned.
 To whom can I speak today?
 Brothers are evil
 And the friends of today unlovable.
 To whom can I speak today?
 Hearts are rapacious
 And everyone takes his neighbour's goods.
 [To whom can I speak today?]
 Gentleness has perished
 And the violent man has come down on everyone.
 To whom can I speak today?
 Men are contented with evil
 And goodness is neglected everywhere.
 To whom can I speak today?
 He who should enrage a man by his ill deeds,
 he makes everyone laugh (by) his wicked wrongdoing.
 To whom can I speak today?
 Men plunder
 And every man robs his neighbour.
 To whom can I speak today?
 The wrongdoer is an intimate friend
 And the brother with whom one used to act is become an enemy.
 To whom can I speak today?
 None remember the past,
 And no one now helps him who used to do (good).
 To whom can I speak today?
 Brothers are evil,
 And men have recourse to strangers for affection.
 To whom can I speak today?
 Faces are averted,
 And every man looks askance at his brethren.
 To whom can I speak today?
 Hearts are rapacious
 And there is no man's heart in which one can trust.
 To whom can I speak today?
 There are no just persons
 And the land is left over to the doers of wrong.
 To whom can I speak today?
 There is a lack of an intimate friend
 And men have recourse to someone unknown in order to complain to him.
 To whom can I speak today?
 There is no contented man,
 And that person who once walked with him no longer exists.
 To whom can I speak today?
 I am heavy-laden with trouble
 Through lack of an intimate friend.
 To whom can I speak today?
 The wrong which roams the earth,
 There is no end to it.


 Death is in my sight today
 [As when] a sick man becomes well,
 Like going out-of-doors after detention.
 Death is in my sight today
 Like the smell of myrrh,
 Like sitting under an awning on a windy day.
 Death is in my sight today
 Like the perfume of lotuses,
 Like sitting on the shore of the Land of Drunkenness.
 Death is in my sight today
 Like a trodden way,
 As when a man returns home from an expedition.
 Death is in my sight today
 Like the clearing of the sky,
 Like a man who ...... for something which he does not know.
 Death is in my sight today.
 As when a man desires to see home
 When he has spent many years in captivity.


Verily, he who is yonder will be a living god,
Averting the ill of him who does it.
Verily, he who is yonder will be one who stands in the Bark of the Sun,
Causing choice things to be given therefrom for the temples.
Verily, he who is yonder will be a sage
Who will not be prevented from appealing to Re when he speaks."

What my soul said to me: "Cast complaint upon the peg, my comrade and brother;
make offering on the brazier and cleave to life, according as I have said.
Desire me here, thrust the West aside, but desire that you may attain the West
when your body goes to earth, that I may alight after you are weary;
then will we make an abode together."

It is finished from its beginning to its end, just as it was found in writing.




I didn't know it was well-known enough to inspire other creative types.











And a David Byrne cover:

The Man Who Loved Beer

Lambchop

to whom can i speak today
the brothers they are evil
and the old friends of today
they have become unlovable
to whom can i speak today
the gentleness has perished
and the violent man has come down on everyone


to whom can i speak today
the wrong which roams the earth
there can be no end to it
it is just unstoppable
death is in my sights today
and when a man desires
to see home after many years in jail


february through december
we have such a tragic hue
as separate as the fingers
or suddenly as one as the hand
and the violent man comes down on everyone