A letter of woeful yet philosophical lament, sent from Wermai the high pirest to the royal scribe.
A tale of woe, recalling the Book of Job or the psalms, from the 20th or 21st dynasty, ___ BC. Also referred to as the Moscow literary letter. The only known copy of this (ficticious?) letter was found together with a copy of the Tale of Wenamen's Journey at el-Hibe in 1890.
LETTER OF WERMAI
1.
Copy of the letter which the God's Father (the high priest) Wermai, son of Huny,
has written,
with greetings to his friend,
2.
the scribe of the royal residence Usimaarenakht,
son of Ramose, at Heracleopolis.
It reads,
3.
All the best wishes for the future to you. words typical of actual Egyptian letters
4.
May you reach a beautiful age in the city of Atem.
5.
May your good repute remain constant through the grace of the king,
as you have always been good, both towards gods and men.
6.
When the sun-god shines in the sky,
may his beauty cause happiness to your senses
7.
and may he show himself pleased with your prayers,
so that he will answer your supplications when you adore him,
and you are encompassed by his beams thence,
for they are life!
8.
May your body stretch contentedly
and may he prevent you from suffering;
9.
for when someone distressed calls for him
he will hurry to him, full of help.
10.
May he grant you 110 years on earth, 110 years: the ideal age of death.[55?]
11.
may your body be healthy and aged joyfully,
without bodily infirmities,
yet with joy and zest for life in the heart and without decrepitude.
12.
Yet this is in your grasp anyway.
far be from you the company of those doomed to die!
13.
Better to compensate yourself with bowls full of milk and basins of wine,
14.
for neither are you close to your end
nor to the time when the bearer of vases and vessels of libation stands before you.
15.
Doubtful physical conditions are unknown to you.
16.
Your body is intact, everything in its place,
your heart in the right spot,
19.
your tongue is nimble as always and will not forsake you.
20.
Towards the end of life you should look out for a well-populated place.
21.
Searching for a desolate place should remain far from you
when you have become a god
and attained the goal of your journey.
22.
Indeed, your ears have not been damaged
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and body and limbs function in every way as expected.
23.
Yet even you will not last eternally!
24.
You will enter your tomb safe and sound,
and join the ancient ones at Heliopolis like all the just.
25.
In your own interest,
look for a burial place so that you may have sustenance from your offerings
which are placed at the disposal of the deceased
before god until all eternity.
A Letter of Woe CHAPTER TWO
Divisions 26-50
LETTER OF WOE
26.
Coming to the point,
I have been expelled illegally.
27.
I have been reduced to poverty before I could utter a sound.
28.
I have fallen victim to [injustices],
although I have not committed any crime
and have been driven from my city.
29.
My things were robbed and nothing could be saved.
30.
I stood against arch-enemies.
31.
Every inhabitant who knows about it will confirm it.
32.
They mistreated me,
as well as killed utterly strange women and scattered their children to the four winds.
33.
Some they held in captivity,
others were removed as booty,
34.
like things they were loaded,
beginning with my own servants.
35.
My office was taken from me, yet I was not arrested.
36.
I was chased away and was condemned to err,
a stranger without aim.
37.
The land burned in upheaval;
the South and the North as well as the West and the East had fallen victim to him. the arch enemy
38.
I was taken on on a ship which was not mine.
Mine had already been stolen.
39.
Following the current of the river,
I voyaged through the land in constant fear of its watery depths,
and thus I reached the North near Chemnis.
near Buto in the Delta, where, in the myth, Isis took refuge with Horus
40.
I crossed the fields and swamps of the Delta as they were covered with water;
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41.
in the East, the land of the Pedjetshu,
going round their holy springs,
42.
in the West, the Tjemeh land, region in Nubia , referring to a region in Libya
and finally I landed in Tjehenu. Libya
43.
I crossed the land in all its width,
dragged myself to Xois, Lower Egyptian district and centre for Amen-Re worship in the Delta
passed Tura, town south of Cairo, named Troja too
reached the district of Oxyrhynchos, Per-medjet, an Upper Egyptian district
and arrived finally in the great oasis.
44.
I fled through all the borderlands of Upper Egypt.
45.
Strange places I had to cross on foot
as my horses had been stolen and my carriage and team had been robbed.
46.
I was exposed to their worst acts of violence.
47.
I cried out because of my ill fortune,
for I was forced to walk, as I had none. [nothing at all, and therefore no transportation]
48.
I stayed all the time in cities strange to me
and in villages I did not know:
a stranger.
49.
My friends of olden days did not exist anymore.
50.
Company had to be found afresh.
A Letter of Woe CHAPTER THREE
Divisions 51-70
LETTER OF WOE
51.
These people were with me for a while,
then they turned away from me because of what I was,
and ignored my need.
52.
If only there were a piece of news which would let me breathe a sigh of relief,
after I have been stranded in injustice.
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53.
Yet nobody asked me how I was,
after my difficult journeys to and fro.
54.
Once flesh and bones are lying on the edge of the desert
who will cover them then for protection?
55.
No news which could gladden my heart.
56.
No, not the dead, not the living: nobody asks after me in my misfortune.
57.
Yet what does this mean when I enter the realm of the dead
and find myself in the presence of the god of the horizon.
58.
He is kept apart from the clamour and turmoil.
59.
He is well, his erstwhile condition is in the past,
and I was doing well too while under his responsibility.
60.
He will come immediately when a description of my difficult journey is conveyed to him.
61.
Send him from your office a copy of my letter.
62.
People will see him with joy when he comes to me in my need.
63.
Petitioners on whose behalf he set out know about it.
64.
Believe me, I am suffering.
65.
For a month corn has been withheld from me,
I and all the others here are going hungry.
66.
I do not remember any more what corn looks like,
and their taste even less.
There is none!
67.
The livelihood of the people among whom I am is modest,
the waters have dried up, their land is parched.
68.
For them there is no escape from wretchedness,
a petitioner is not even allowed to address his lord.
69.
When protest arises the gang show him only flattering mockery.
70.
While their own concerns are dealt with,
they hinder everybody else's,
apart from their income and the tax on salt, natron, onions, reeds and sedges.
A Letter of Woe CHAPTER FOUR
Divisions 71-100
LETTER OF WOE
71.
Send a letter.
72.
I am certain he will come to the aid of the unpropertied.
73.
A petitioner caused him to look busy:
74.
"I will procure heaps of corn,"
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75.
said the lord in order to choke off his inquiry.
76.
And he believed the promise.
77.
He came to me after he had been on the road for a month,
78.
burned brown like dried flesh which lies around on the edge of the desert
and tanned like a cow skin.
79.
Immediately he accused me in the court of law:
80.
"He has committed a crime against me in my city!"
81.
His tax was an incredibly heavy burden for me,
and there were many which it ground down
and whom he squeezed dry with the help of his henchmen.
82.
He left me, robbed of the corn even,
which others had given me while he had been away travelling.
83.
Without ceasing they burst in a rising grumbling
when the corn measure, falsified by its maker, was used,
84.
"What a criminal is this carpenter who has made it.
85.
A sack in it is all of a sudden one and a half!"
86.
By Atem, the unique, he has robbed them!
87.
I only possessed a piece of dirt on the edge of the desert,
which barely yielded enough corn for the tax.
88.
It was packed into bags on the same day when he came to me and said:
89.
"They are letting the amam-land go to ruin,
and I do not know whether they don't let the plough-land go fallow as well!"
90.
Yet nothing was done against it!
91.
I thought in my heart and mind,
92.
'May the sparrows get the rest of their amam-corn!
93.
If only I were relieved of this tax
and the gang which causes tears of shame without end.'
94
If only I did not have to write to you concerning this unimaginable misdeed which he has committed against my god.
95.
What has happened to me will strike him too,
96.
for who could hide himself when your wrath, O god,
names the one who has perpetrated it?
97.
Come and deliver me from their hands!
98.
If only I could send him to Nehar,
to fetch the hidden Tmrgn with whom he had journeyed to Nays'ar!
99.
Turn your face towards us again!
100.
Alas, if only he would take action against my oppressor!
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