Egyptian Tales, Translated from the Papyri: Second series, XVIIIth to XIXth dynastyPetrie, W. M. Flinders (William Matthew Flinders)
History
Egyptian Tales, Translated from the Papyri: Second series, XVIIIth to XIXth dynasty
Petrie, W. M. Flinders (William Matthew Flinders)
Egyptian literature -- Translations into English
"And Na-nefer-ka-ptah, my brother, said, 'Let us go down, let us not
delay, for the king has not yet heard of what has happened to him, and
his heart will be sad about it.' So we went to the haven, we sailed, and
did not stay to the north of Koptos. When we were come to the place
where the little boy Mer-ab had fallen in the water, I went out from the
awning of the royal boat, and I fell into the river. They called
Na-nefer-ka-ptah, and he came out from the cabin of the royal boat; he
read a spell over me, and brought my body up, because a divine power
brought me to the surface. He drew me out, and read the spell over me,
and made me tell him of all that had happened to me, and of what Thoth
had said before Ra. Then he turned back with me to Koptos, he brought
me to the Good House, he fetched the people to me, and made one embalm
me, as great and noble people are buried, and laid me in the tomb where
Mer-ab my young child was.
"He turned to the haven, and sailed down, and delayed not in the north
of Koptos. When he was come to the place where we fell into the river,
he said to his heart, 'Shall I not better turn back again to Koptos,
that I may lie by them? For, if not, when I go down to Memphis, and the
king asks after his children, what shall I say to him? Can I tell him,
"I have taken your children to the Thebaid, and killed them, while I
remained alive, and I have come to Memphis still alive"?' Then he made
them bring him a linen cloth of striped byssus; he made a band, and
bound the book firmly, and tied it upon him. Na-nefer-ka-ptah then went
out of the awning of the royal boat and fell into the river. He cried on
Ra; and all those who were on the bank made an outcry, saying, 'Great
woe! Sad woe! Is he lost, that good scribe and able man that has no
equal?'
"The royal boat went on, without any one on earth knowing where
Na-nefer-ka-ptah was. It went on to Memphis, and they told all this to
the king. Then the king went down to the royal boat in mourning, and all
the soldiers and high priests and priests of Ptah were in mourning, and
all the officials and courtiers. And when he saw Na-nefer-ka-ptah, who
was in the inner cabin of the royal boat--from his rank of high
scribe--he lifted him up. And they saw the book by him; and the king
said, 'Let one hide this book that is with him.' And the officers of the
king, the priests of Ptah, and the high priest of Ptah, said to the
king, 'Our Lord, may the king live as long as the sun! Na-nefer-ka-ptah
was a good scribe, and a very skilful man.' And the king had him laid in
his Good House to the sixteenth day, and then had him wrapped to the
thirty-fifth day, and laid him out to the seventieth day, and then had
him put in his grave in his resting-place.
"I have now told you the sorrow which has come upon us because of this
book for which you ask, saying, 'Let it be given to me.' You have no
claim to it; and, indeed, for the sake of it, we have given up our life
on earth."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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