Nut, the Sky, swallows the sun each evening and brings it forth into the

world again at dawn.

GIVING BREATH TO OSIRIS
I am the blue egg of the Great Cackler. I am the egg of the world. I was
asleep inside a mound of dirt, now I rise from a buried egg. I live, I say, I
live. I smell the air. I sniff the air. I walk with my toes in the dirt. I give my
family duck meat to eat. I guard the fledgling in the nest. What food there is
for man in the sky, blue sky. A swallow darts and circles. I am the egg. I
smell the air.
I am the first-born, the light of the sky. I breathe in the presence of a
powerful god, under the belly of sky, upon the shoulder of gypt. !y breath
is like a child to me. !y breath hangs sweet in my nostrils. I am the blue
egg of the Great Cackler. I grow. I swell. I sniff air. I live there like the wing
of a goose.
What a "ourney I have made, the things I have seen. I am but one of you. In
my hand I grasp the sailing mast, while my left hand trails in the water. #he
trees are heavy with figs and olives. A coconut drops to the ground. I have
separated myself from myself to sail again on the green $ile waters. I sail to
the temple where the gods have gathered to ga%e at their faces in deep pools.
In my boat the souls of the years sail with me. #he hair stands on my head in
the wind. I hear the splashing of oars like the cracking of a thin blue shell.
&orus keeps one hand on the rudder. What a "ourney I have made, the things
I have seen. We glide to the middle of the lake. Give me a cup of milk and
cake or bread. Give me a "ug of water and human flesh. Give me air to
breathe and a strong sailing wind when I rise from the underworld.
A sycamore rises white from the river, filling itself with water and air. 'ill
me with water and air. I am the blue egg of the Great Cackler and I sniff the
air. I grow and live. I breathe and live. (n the banks of the $ile, the sky fills
with birds and the sails of boats swell like lungs.
COMING FORTH AND PASSING THROUGH
#he plug has been lifted from the unguent "ar. A perfume of hours. #he past
has been rolled into a scroll I shall not see again. #he eye of the hawk is
unblinking. (pen. )hut. *erfect.
I rise like the sun above olive trees, like the moon above date palms. Where
there is light, I shall be. Where there is darkness, there is none of me. I rise
like the moon above date palms. I am counted as one among stars.
+eam of light, sun and moon. )hining beast, man and woman. I am passing
through. Come outside among the people. I am light. Ga%e on me. !oon in
darkness, sun in morning. ,ight is what I will on earth, along the $ile,
among the people.
I have traveled through the tomb, dark and lonely ground. I am here now. I
have come. I see. In the underworld, I embraced my father. I have burned
away his darkness. I am his beloved. I have killed the snake. I have given
him meat. I walk in my sleep through earth and heaven.
I have set the sky in two parts. I pass through. I wander the hori%ons. I have
dusted my feet with earth. I have worn the skin of a black panther and
chanted into the ears of children. I eat with my mouth. I chew with my "aw. I
am a living god come forth. I am with the earth millions of years.
RA RISING
#hree lyres. (ne sun in the east. #he image of grace in my two eyes. (ne
glad body. A day. #he wind which moves the boats, moves them. #he
strident sun is walking through a field of stars. #he beautiful one is singing
in two halves of the sky. A child speaks. An old man nods and dreams. #he
people have come from their houses to sit in doorways to sniff the air.
( sun. ( -a. (siris risen. ( child climbing along mother.s back, laughing.
#wo men in a bark boat, rowing, stop to hear your mother singing. !aat at
the double season. )trident sun in heaven.
#en thousand thousand sticks of light have been raised against the demon.
&e is fallen. &is beard has been cut. &is two hands and ten fingers have
been severed. &is sinews are torn by the knife.
+e /uiet. -a is in the wind. &e speaks when the earth is silent and he alone
e0isted until he named the names of things. -iver, he said, and -iver lived.
$ile. !ountain. +eetle. 'isherman. 'rom his tongue spring words of water.
#he river /uakes with the sound of his voice. Air escaping from his nose.
+reathe deep. #he wind a sigh from his mother. )uch things are made
everyday1 2uck, !andrake, -aisin. Grape, *omegranate, !elon. Cypress,
*alm, (siris.
THE AWAKENING OF OSIRIS
Air and earth are my hori%ons. What lies between is what I am. ( infinite
form of being1 beast and stone and vegetable3 the way a man may stand in
his garden or dance by the river while wakes of small boats rock the reeds.
#he cities and the people in them, gods who walk in white linen, like
women under the blue stone of heaven. I am the priest in a hidden house,
guide to inner worlds. I am the idea of myself in my mother.s belly, a bright
trembling star in the memory of morning, a grain of sand blown east. I am
the husband of Isis1 woman, and widow, and witch. #o embrace her is to
dream of ripening wheat. #o sleep in her arms is to dream of honey. With a
word she drives the snakes from the river. #he boats sail far to its mouth.
Air is what I breathe. arth is where I stand. I have given my face to
Amenta. It is white with heat. #he world is bright as bron%e. #he dead rise
up to see me, breathe the air and look into my face, a yellow disk on the
eastern hori%on.
THE HEART OF CARNELIAN
!ine is a heart of carnelian, crimson as murder on a holy day. !ine is a
heart of cornel, the gnarled roots of a dogwood and the bursting of flowers. I
am the broken wa0 seal on my lover.s letters. I am the phoeni0, the fiery
sun, consuming and resuming myself. I pace the halls of the underworld. I
knock on the doors of death. I wander into the fields to stare at the sun and
lie in the grass, ripe as a fig. #he souls of the gods are with me. #hey hum
like flies in my ears. I am .4. I will what I will. !ine is a heart of carnelian,
blood red as the crest of a phoeni0.
RETURNING TO SEE HIS HOME
#he night sun rests in the lap of a bear, dreaming in the northern sky. A half-
moon, I shine above the legs. I come forth from the edge of heaven. I climb
to the deepest pit of the sky and rest awhile above cooling rocks, above
houses in the cities and people who sleep warm nights on the roofs under a
half-moon, dreaming. (h, I am weak and feeble at the sight of my children
sleeping. (h, I am weak with wonder to see my dark wife dreaming, her hair
unbraided and perfumed, falling across her eyes and in her red, red mouth
and around her firm, brown shoulders. I am weak and feeble, gliding in
cloudless dark. 'orgetful of the teeth and tongues of snakes, I rest above my
homeland dreaming.
+elow are my house and cattle. I grow a little stronger. !y beams of light
are arrows which wound the night and drive it back. I am the eye of a
sleeping lion who dreams of stalking the fields with his mate. I am the eye
of a resurrected man come home to kiss his wife. I am a half-moon, high in
the darkness, a cup of light spilling dreams from the sky. I must move on to
the furthest edge of heaven. #he wheat in my fields has sprung up in straight
rows. I am a half-moon in the night, keeping watch. I must move on.
A PREPONDERANCE OF STARRY BEINGS
( starry ones5 I am a man by a river, ga%ing up. And how these same stars
/uiver above 6heraba and An. &ow these lights reach farther than the watch
fires of &eliopolis. And what of hidden things7
( hawk5 ( restless son, traveling into this season. #he snake writhes in your
talons. 8our wings brush the edge of the sky. ,ong flight of days, passing
many lands, death sleeps among your many feathers.
( soul, ancient ram5 come here by the pool to drink. #wo horns of sense and
reason implanted in your forehead. )on of the mountain sky. 2usty hoof
which tramps an old trail.
( king5 #his rock on which we live endures. 8ours is the plumed white
crown, tower of flesh infused with spirit. Above, the eye of god is dreaming
us. +elow, we are. Air and earth and mist and fire. #o the east the mountains
are singing.
( lord of acacia trees5 whose blooms are the first sensations, who binds the
rags of mummies. #his sad mortality5 #he boat is set upon its sledge and
filled with yellow flowers. ( "ackal Anubis5 I have passed through the
underworld door. $othing grows and nothing dies3 all that was and would
be, is. #his life is a singular breath and your moving eye is time.
9pon the brow of men the word is writ, and in their hearts the word is deed.
)moke from temple fires curls like hair. #he ankh in your one hand, the
knife in your other. ( he whose face is too ponderous for sculpture into
stone5 &api, the waters flow. *apyrus and lotus spring up. In your boat,
sailing from some unknown city, your body glistens like water.
#he gods have heard my name. (siris. I am a man by the river, ga%ing up.
&usband and tiller and reaper and king. I am the lord of seasons, of that
which falls and returns to light. I am he who sowed the seed. I am the bread
I have made.
#his is such nourishing peace.
ADORATION OF RA
-e"oicing in the houses. #he sound of brass bells on dancing ankles. #he
hips of women are swaying through dusty streets. 2ay upon day the sun is
risen. 2ay upon day the sun will rise. 2ay upon day this heat on adobe walls
and the splay of light on (siris. !orning stars and eventide. Chants ring
through the valley and across the sands, to rise to the altar of heaven. #he
soul of (siris walks with wind into the temples of gods. &e sets sail in the
boat of the morning sun. &e comes to port at eventide. &e twists and twines
through star-studded waters, the sound of his oars the ssh-sssh of wind. #he
sun beats on and on like a tireless heart.
+lessings on thee, hawk, fierce and beautiful as love, whose hori%ons are the
edges of memory so vast a man gets lost. +lessings on thee, beetle sun,
which rolls into life every day, kicking si0 legs and humming your shiny
beetle song. #his world is a little patch of ground you travel with no
particular haste. #he sun has burst upon the land, light yellow dust on the
head of a bee. #he gods are all in re"oicing. #hey are drunk with sun and
singing, and they crown each other king. #he lady of the house places
garlands on (siris. :ines and flowers from northern and southern cities meet
themselves upon his forehead. ;!y lord,; she says, ;the sun is so bright
today. It hovers between your shoulders.; #he idea of himself travels with
him, affi0ed like the figurehead on a ship. &is enemies beat themselves with
sticks and fall in the water. 'rom the netherworld the dead are rising to catch
a glimpse of his shining face. #he sea is pregnant with form. And the belly
of sky is beautiful.
very day, the sun. very day. And I walk east in the garden to see you, west
through the country to be with you. ( sun, my head fills with light. 2o not
turn me away from your easy lust, whole in the sky, white with heat. 2o not
bind me in layers of darkness, a worm in the brown cake of earth. !y hands
are bread I have made every day. #he sun comes into my heart where
sparrows nest. I am ridiculous and rolling on the ground, pleased with such
company. very day, the sun on the wall, the sun, lingering on a ripe fig. I
am he who worships the sun, a space in my heart a bird could fill. I am one
who listens to the grass speaking in the garden. !ay I chew the green blade
of eternity in a garden filled with sun. !ay I walk into the fire and be
burned like kernels of wheat, ground into the pulp of e0istence. !ay the sun
come and bake me brown as bread. !ay I rise like bread everyday.
In the field with my cattle, my shadow sinks into black earth and rises. #he
smell of things growing. #he hori%on parts like waking lovers and like a
child, the sun rises from their sleep. #he world watches its steps, old man,
old child, old king. )un passing in the sky, light of all that can be said,
shadow of hidden things. very face watches, every eye turns3 resplendent
dawn and evening. )uch passion is e0istence. very day the sun king rides
his boat, glory dripping like water from an oar. very day the streets fill
with people, every face, turning. )uch power can not be measured. )uch
love can not be told. 9nspeakable grace in the fields and cities. I dip my
bread in milk and eat.
!antis, this landscape is hidden from all but the most holy eye. ( sun, going
out to the sea.s edge over the crest of mountain, what might man call home
but the light in his head, the scroll in his heart7 What darklings wait with
blood red teeth within the walls of his sacred home7 )uch country the sun
has seen, truth like memory or love. )uch colors of robes some young
women wear, more mauve than grapes their gowns and eyes. What is hidden
belongs to the sun. It is too much for a man to know. It is
-a who gathers the world together, who holds and beholds with his eye, this
"u0taposition of vegetation and air, the thousand colors of prayer and stone.
&aving sprung from formless water, he takes his shape in fire. &e springs
from the mouth of the hori%on as if he were the first word he uttered. !ay
he string his words into song. !ay be roll through the heavens like music.
And for as long as the sun is singing, may the strings of my soul hum like a
lyre.
)un, your number is one, multiplied by millions. I am but a man with my
thousand longings for unity. !ay we never cease to be. !ay there be no
time in which a man must count the days toward some end. o, that life could
be more than its fragments. $o before and no after, no e0altation but in the
timeless one. #he sun is striding over heaven, crossing distances of millions
of years, and the hundreds of thousands of millions... one day of the sun. &e
set-rises, set-rises, set-rises over thousands of cities, trees and mountains and
men. #he distance of the instant. &e has made an end to hours, and likewise,
counted them. In the morning, earth fills with light. ,aw and baptism. #he
one of us all, endures. It is our work under the sun.
)peak of the rising heart of carnelian. -ed heart of a living god, old priest in
an ancient tomb, an image scratched into muscle and blood. (n this stony
plateau we stand, all our days like beads of lapis strung on the throat of sky.
We stand. 0istent cities washed with color. Ash of night fallen
underground. #he great world pours out its unguents and the little world is
made great. A shout among many people rises on a day of splendor when the
sun folds back on itself. &e deepens and lengthens and thickens, molding his
body with light. #he sun is grinding itself like corn. #endrils of fire seek
their limits of light. #his is the color of time, the "oy and pain of a birthing
mother. &e is born in the form of -a. &e creates himself on his mother.s
thigh.
!ay I reach an everlasting heaven and walk in the legend of mountain with
thoughts as /uiet as deer. !ay I meet myself in every vegetable and rock
/uickened by tendrils of light. &oly and perfect is the world which lives by
fire in the embrace of the carnelian heart. !ay 4 walk with the sun until
eventide, forgetting the reason of hours. !ay I burst into light like a purple
flower remembered by a lover.
#he sun has risen like gold or wheat, aurora in the land of his birth, splendor
in a country of sky. &is mother is wrapped in the gau%e of air, the disc
revolves in her hand like a bowl of meal. gypt will be fed. Great light
bursts on the hori%on and men who.ve slept in the dark with stomachs empty
as night, rush into the streets hungry, happy to eat morning. #en thousand
thousand fingers are washed in the $ile flood, ten thousand thousand grapes
and olives are fed by living water. In the towns and in the temples there is a
festival of wine and flowers, one song many lutes are playing. A woman
suckles her baby, while her husband, drunk with meat and beer, lies in the
shade of a fig tree, singing praises to her inner thigh.
!ight of might. )plendor of splendor. #his is the terror inherent in love1 that
such power may e0ist without reason, that death may be feared and lusted
for as a woman, that passion gives rise to passion. I am moved by desire as
if in a boat transported from hori%on to hori%on. What I have done for love,
let it be held against me. I am a man whose heart is too full. I am a man
empty of sin. It is life I desire and my lust for it and I shall enter the heart of
the mountain together. #ogether we shall be "udged by shining beasts and
they shall say ;#here walks he who loved life.; (ne day, with a shout, I.ll
rise through the sky. !y voice will mingle with air. I.ll cross hori%ons3 with
silver wings I.ll enter the realm of magic. Within the temple of mountain and
sky, corn grows amid earth.s yellow scars. #his is the sacred cathedral of -a
into which men long to enter. !y name will recall the countless stars under
which new lovers kiss. 2eath ferries me to a distant shore while striped fish
spawn on tur/uoise waters, while black fish leap in white rivers.
#he universe is drawn in circles. #he memory of chariot wheels clacking
across small stones foreshadows the asp.s death as he wraps himself around
the wheel. &e is crushed by its embrace. #he air crackles when -a is within.
And sailors who.ve known only cities by the sea and the whip of the rope
and sail, come to moor at last amid a crush of flowers, and re"oice and weep
and go on. #he days before and the days after fill with the odor of
pomegranates3 the heart ripens like fruit and falls and breaks. )weet meat for
the lips of gods. (n such a day one glances into the sky and finds the eye of
-a looks back. (ne finds loaves of bread on fine reed mats and the eye of
-a looks back. #he air crackles. #he sun beats on and on and on.
From The Egyptian Book of the Dead
translated by Normandi Ellis