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The Mummy Lives – eternal life in Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt –or the Pharaonic Era, as this epoch in Egypt is also called—refers to a culture that died out almost 2000 years ago.

Preface

Death is before me today
(Like) a sick man’s recovery,
Like going outside after confinement.

Death is before me today
Like the scent of myrrh,
Like sitting under a sail on breezy day.

Death is before me today
Like the scent of lotus,
Like sitting on the shore of drunkenness.

Death is before me today
Like a well-trodden way,
Like a man’s coming home from warfare.

Death is before me today
Like the clearing of the sky,
As when a man discovers what he ignored.

Death is to me today
Like a man’s longing to see his home,
When he has spent many years in captivity.

– From «Dispute between a Man and His Ba», written in the Middle Kingdom. Translated by Miriam Lichtheim in Ancient Egyptian Literature, vol. I. University of California Press 1975.