I wanted to connect the word “fast” and it’s meaning back to ancient Egypt.  After an evening and morning of searches, I discovered “The Harper’s Tale”.

I tried many meaning and synonyms for “fast” and started to focus on the idiomatic expression “life's too short”.  I went back to the Ancient Egyptian dictionary at: http://www.ancient-egypt.co.uk/transliteration/ancient_egypt_dictionary.pdf

And found this:  

This was definitely the meaning I was searching for.  So I searched Google for the following: “ancient egypt life literature transitory state” and found a reference to Coping with Transience: Ecclesiastes on Brevity in Life  in Google Books.  (https://books.google.com/books?id=nQsmcyWySQUC&lpg=PA31&ots=qmtdp7AKJA&dq=ancient%20egypt%20life%20literature%20transitory%20state&pg=PA31#v=onepage&q=ancient%20egypt%20life%20literature%20transitory%20state&f=false)

 

This then led me to search for the Song of the Harper.  The first result was from www.ancientegyptonline.co.uk a well known general topic site on Ancient Egypt by Jenny Hill (Twitter: @AncientEgyptOnl)  

 

I followed the first link and found a page detailing the three known versions of the Song.  I was moved by the first two, but I didn’t feel like I found what I was looking for until I reached this line from the tomb of Inherkhawy:

 

This is what I was looking for, the perfect aphorism for the brevity of life. 

The end of the page noted that it was a "Translation by J.L. Foster in "Echoes of Egyptian Voices”.  Luckily for me this book is available at Doe Library: http://oskicat.berkeley.edu/record=b15445399~S1

 

 

I plan on getting it today and diving deeper into building a scene that portrays the brevity of life.

Mohammed Shamma

September 29, 2016 8:54 AM