Meanwhile the man kept on working with coolness and precision. He produced a pointed hook, which he shoved up my nose with great concentration, until he reached his objective. Then rapidly, with familiarity and violence, he forced out my big brain, which oozed away in a slimy stream, sending particles out into the air of what once had been my dazzling ideas, my dearest hopes, and the smoke of my dreams. These were my own thoughts that were painted before my eyes, but when I considered them in the light of the truth that my spirit now saw, they seemed no more than grotesque trivialities. The state in which I now found refuge tried hard to keep them out. How my head reeled from the effort!
Here I am, declaiming the poem that I had composed depicting the battle of Qadesh. And here are the speeches that I made before the Prince at public occasions, and here are my views on literature and good conduct, and the rules of astronomy that I memorized from the books of Qaqimna. All of these the man removed with the bits of my brain. They settled between the stomach and the intestines in the tub full of blood — not counting those parts which fell upon the ground to be squashed underfoot. “Now the body has been well cleaned!” the expert handling the hook pronounced. “When you die, may you find a hand as practiced as your own!” his friend added, giggling. At this the two technicians carried what remained of my body to the great trough filled with the magic liquid, immersing it within. Then they washed their hands and left the chamber. Meanwhile, I understood that the room would not be opened again for a span of seventy days — the period of embalming. I was touched with unease. The thought struck me that my spirit should go out into the world to catch a glimpse of my final farewell.
Three
My soul was eager to go out into the world, and so I did. This did not entail actual movement as such, for it was enough that I simply direct my thoughts toward something and I would find it right in front of me. Yet the reality was even greater, for my sight became something truly extraordinary — nothing was beyond it. It turned into a penetrating power that passed through barriers and cut through veils, seeing into minds and hidden recesses. However, though our parting had been decreed, my thoughts were pulled toward my family, so I found myself back in my home. The children had gone into a deep sleep which the turbulence did not disturb. My mother and wife lay down on the floor, the misery and suffering plain on their faces from the force of their crying and sorrow. Tomorrow their woes would multiply even more when the sarcophagus would proceed to its perpetual place of burial. My spirit entered them and moved their heads and appeared before them in dreams, and I saw the two tortured hearts beating in agony and pain. What was all this worry? Something, however, attracted my vision. I saw in the dark oppression of each of their hearts a spot of white, and I knew it — for nothing was unknown to me — as the germ of forgetfulness. Oh! This germ would grow larger and spread wider until it covered the heart entire. Indeed, I saw all of this clearly, without being bothered, for nothing could trouble me now. Instead I wondered, intrigued by the taste of discovery, when might this happen? My supernatural eyes brought me a picture from the future: I saw my mother take a young boy by her right hand and make her way through thickly crowded streets, waving a lotus flower. And I learned that she had come out — or that she would come out — to take part in our village’s happiest festival, the feast of the goddess Isis. Her face was jubilant, and my son was hooting with laughter. I saw my wife prepare a banquet with food of the best kinds found in her world and invite a man that I knew to it. This was her maternal cousin Sa-wu — and what an excellent husband he was! If the dead could feel pleasure, then I would have been pleased for her. Sa-wu was a man of virtue, for he who makes happy my wife and tends well to my children is a good man indeed.
With this my spirit left my house, and I stopped on the wayside at the sweet Prince’s palace. I peered into the Prince’s consciousness and found him, who had appreciated me and prized me in the most moving manner, feeling sorry for my loss. His mind was preoccupied with choosing my successor. I read within his memory the name of the new candidate: Ab-Ra, one of my more promising subordinates, though we had not been intimate.
All this was fine. But why remain in my village today, when Pharaoh is to receive the envoy of the Hittites, come to sign a pact of peace and reconciliation? I saw Memphis, in a glance of the eye, clamoring with her teeming multitudes, and the palace at the height of its splendor. The King, the ambassador, the priests, the nobles, and the generals were gathered in the hall of the Great Throne. All of these masters of the world were met in one place. The triumphant monarch was speaking to the representative of the mighty Hittites with an air of warm civility. But the King’s breast was filled with scorn, and a single expression recurred in his mind, “There’s no avoiding the unavoidable.” As for the envoy, his heart was brimming over with hate, and this thought was dammed up with it: “Be patient until this powerful ruler dies.”
My eyes wandered everywhere. I saw the faces and the clothes and the hearts and the minds and the bellies. I saw the outer world and the inner one without any hindrance, and amused myself for a time by examining the exquisite food and the vintage wine in their stomachs, until I came across onion and garlic in the gut of a priest. These are both forbidden for the clergy! I asked myself, do you see how this pious man takes advantage of his fellows’ distraction to sneak down this food? In part of a nobleman’s stomach, I caught the creep of the disease that would sap away his life. At this moment, the man was talking to a general with glee and delight. Inwardly, I said to him, “May you be welcome!” Then my sight fell on the governor Tety, infamous for his cruelty and ruthlessness, to the point that Pharaoh had to admonish him to be moderate in overseeing his province. I scrutinized him carefully, immediately discovering that his body was frail, his limbs were sick, and that he complained bitterly and ceaselessly about his teeth and his joints. Each time the pain assailed him, he yearned to be able to sever the infection from his body. This explained why he was gripped by cruelty, as he did not hesitate to cut out the crooked from among his subjects with merciless brutality. In addition to Tety, I saw the vizier, Mina. That obdurate man, who fought the idea of peace with all this force, was always agitating for war. Do you see the secret of this dangerous minister’s stubbornness? I saw that his mind was brilliant but his bowels were feeble. The morsels of his food remained trapped in them a long time, corrupting his blood as it circulated, so that it reached his brain spoiled, fouling his reason. As a result, that which issued from his mouth possessed great evil! The man satisfied with his own opinion sees it as straight and rightly guided, though I saw his mind as blackened and polluted.
Next my vision turned to the breasts of those present, looking into their hidden corners and behind their grinning faces. One was horribly bored, whispering to his companion, “When can we go back to the palace to hear the courtesans sing?” And that one over there muttered, “If the man had died from his illness, I would now be commander of the spear-throwers brigade!” And this other one pondered to himself in anguish, “When will the imbecile leave for his tour of inspection, so that I may rush to be with his gorgeous wife, whom I adore— ahhh!” And yet another told a friend from his deepest heart, “A human being doesn’t know when his appointed time will come.” And, “After today, I will not put off building my tomb.” Or, “Of what good is money, then?” Confusion so controlled his heart that he told a comrade, “Akhenaten said that the Lord is Aton, while Horemheb said that He was Amon. There is also a sect that worships Ra — so why did the Lord leave us in dissension?” I did not tarry too long at Pharaoh’s magnificent party, for I soon succumbed to ennui. I turned away from it, to find myself once more abroad in the wide world.