The Egyptian

2

Nefernefernefer received me in her garden beside the lotus pool. Her eyes were clear and gay and greener than the waters of the Nile.

When she saw me she cried, “O Sinuhe! So you have come back-then I am perhaps not yet so old and ugly. What do you want?”

I looked at her as a starveling looks at bread until she tilted her head in displeasure.

“Sinuhe, Sinuhe-again? I live alone, indeed, but I am no contemptible woman, and I must guard my reputation.”

“Yesterday I made over to you all my father’s property; and he is now a poor man, though formerly a respected physician. Being blind, he must beg bread in his old age while my mother must wash the linen of others.”

“Yesterday was yesterday, and today is today.” Her eyes narrowed. ‘“But I am not extortionate. You may sit beside me and hold my hand. I am happy today and would at least share my heart’s gladness with you, if no other pleasure.”

She laughed mischievously and stroked her belly with a light hand. “You do not ask why my heart is glad today, but I will tell you. You must know that a distinguished man from the Lower Kingdom has arrived in the city, and he brings with him a golden bowl of nearly a hundred deben weight, upon which are engraved many beautiful and diverting pictures. He is old, certainly, and so thin that his old shanks will chafe me, yet I believe that in the morning that bowl will adorn my house.”

She feigned a deep sigh when I made no answer and sat with her dreamy gaze on the lotuses and the other flowers in that garden. Then slowly slipping off her robe, she stepped down into the pool. Her head rose from the water beside a lotus flower, and she was more fair than all the lotuses. Floating before me with her hands behind her head, she said, “You are silent today, Sinuhe! Surely it is not I who have unwittingly wounded you? I would gladly make amends if I could.”

I answered in spite of myself, “You know well enough what it is I want, Nefernefernefer.”

“Your face is flushed, and I can see the blood pulsing at your temples. Would it not be well to lay aside your robe and step down into the pool here with me to cool yourself this hot day? None can see us here, so do not hesitate.”

I stripped and stepped down into the pool, and my side touched hers. But when I would have held her, she evaded me, laughing and splashing water into my face.

“I understand what you want, Sinuhe, though I am too bashful to look at you. But first you must give me a present, for you know that I am not a woman to be despised.”

I shouted in my wrath, “Are you mad? You know you have robbed me of everything! I am ashamed and dare never again look my parents in the face. But I am still a physician, and my name is written in the Book of Life. Perhaps I may yet earn enough to give you a present worthy of you. Have pity on me now, for even in the water I burn as in fire and bite my hand till the blood flows when I look at you.”

She stretched herself out on the water, her breasts rising above the surface like two rosy flowers. She looked at me from under her green- painted eyelids and said, “Can we think of nothing for you to give me? For I weaken, Sinuhe; it is troubling to me to see you naked in my pool. You are clumsy and without experience, yet I think that one day I could teach you much that you do not yet know-tricks to sharpen a man’s pleasure and a woman’s also. Consider this, Sinuhe!”

When I snatched at her, she stepped swiftly up out of the pool and standing behind a tree shook the water from her arms.

“I am but a weak woman, and men are deceivers-you, too, Sinuhe! My heart is heavy at the thought of it and the tears very near my eyes-for it is clear that you are tired of me. Were this not so, you would never have kept from me that your parents have furnished a fine tomb for themselves in the City of the Dead and have paid to the temple the sum needful for the embalming of their bodies against death and for the things necessary to their journey to the Western Land.”

When I heard this, I tore at my breast with my hands till the blood came.

“Shall I rob my parents of immortality and let their bodies dissolve into nothingness like the bodies of beggars and slaves and those who are cast into the river for their crimes? You cannot demand such a thing of me!”

The tears were rolling down my cheeks. Though I groaned in anguish, I went up to her, and she pressed her nakedness against me, saying, “Give me your parents’ tomb and I will whisper ‘my brother’ in your ear and be to you a fire of delight and teach you a thousand things unknown to you to bring you joy!”

I had no mastery of myself but wept.

“Be it so, and may your name be accursed to all eternity-but withstand you I cannot, so powerful is the spell by which you hold me.”

“Speak not of sorcery, for that offends me. As you are tedious and out of humor, I will send a servant for the scribe while we eat and drink to gladden our hearts, that we may enjoy one another when the papers are in order.” And with a joyous laugh she ran into the house.

I dressed and followed her; servants poured water over my hands and bowed, stretching forth their hands at knee level. But behind my back they sniggered and mocked me though I pretended that their sneering was no more than the buzzing of flies in my ear. When Nefernefernefer came down, they fell silent; we ate and drank together, and there were five sorts of meat and twelve sorts of pastry, and we drank mixed wine, which goes quickly to the head. The law scribe came and wrote out the necessary papers. I made over to Nefernefernefer my parents’ tomb in the City of the Dead, with its furnishings, also their deposit in the temple, defrauding them of immortality and of their hope of journeying to the Western Land. I pressed my father’s seal upon the paper and signed it with his name, and the scribe undertook to dispatch the documents to the royal archives that same day and so make them legally valid. He handed the receipt to Nefernefernefer; she put it into the black casket and paid him for his trouble.

When he had gone, I said, “From this hour I am accursed and dishonored before gods and men-it is a high price to pay. Prove to me now that it is not too high.”

But she smiled.

“Drink wine, my brother, that your heart may be gladdened.”

When I would have seized her, she evaded me and filled my wine cup from the jar. Presently she glanced at the sun and said, “See, the day is spent, and it will soon be evening. What do you stay for?”

“Well you know!”

“And well you know which well is deepest and which pit is bottomless, Sinuhe. I must hasten to dress and paint my face, for a golden goblet awaits me, which tomorrow will adorn my house.”

When I would have gathered her into my arms, she slipped from me with a shrill laugh and called out for the servants, who instantly obeyed her summons.

“How came this insufferable mendicant into my house? Throw him out instantly and let him never come within my doors again! If he resists, beat him.”

The servants threw me out, numb as I was with wine and fury, and came again to beat me with sticks when I battered at the barred outer door. And when people began to gather about the spot because of my roaring, the servants declared, “This drunkard insulted our mistress, who lives in her own house and is not a woman to be despised.”

They beat me until I was senseless and left me to lie in the street, where men spat upon me and dogs made water upon my clothes.

When I came to myself, I was without the will to rise and lay there motionless until the morning. The darkness hid me, and I felt that I should never dare to show my face again. The prince had named me He Who Is Alone and I was assuredly the loneliest mortal in the world that night. But when dawn came, when people began to move about the streets, and merchants displayed their merchandise before their booths, and the oxcarts rumbled by, I rose and left the city and hid myself among the reeds for three days and three nights without food or drink. Heart and body were one hideous wound. If any had spoken to me then, I should have screamed aloud, and I feared for my reason.