Gods help us all.

[kiya]

... I just rewrote spell 6 of the Book of Going Forth By Day (Egyptian Book of the Dead) as a limerick.

O shabti alotted my load
When there are some fields to be mowed
Or flooding the land
Or carrying sand
Your eager assistance, bestowed.

Original text used as basis:

"O shabti, alotted to me, if I be summoned or if I be detailed to do any work which has to be done in the realm of the dead; if indeed obstacles are implanted for you wherewith as a man at his duties, you shall detail yourself for me on every occasion of making arable the fields, of flooding the banks or of conveying sand from east to west; 'Here am I' you shall say."

Comments

[jadecat9.livejournal.com]

OMG, that's AWESOME!

I have a fondness for limmericks of all sorts....

I wonder if you can do that with the whole Book?

BTW, do you mind if I borrow this? Obviously, credited, of course.

[kiya]

Most of the spells of the Book are too long to go usefully into limerick form - I've been transforming a wide variety of them into modern-form poetry for a book I'm writing over the last while, so finding appropriate forms for spells is something that I'm working pretty hard on - but I've found that most of them can be rendered as something. Sometimes it's wickedly hard work to get it right, but ....

[jadecat9.livejournal.com]

I can't wait to see what you do with the modern-form poetry version of the BoGFBD. I'm sure that Tehuty guides your pen with amusement and thoughtfulness. :-)

[kiya]

Also, I don't mind borrowing. :)

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

This is the most full-of-win thing I have read all day.

[lupagreenwolf.livejournal.com]

WIN.

[kiya]

I shit you not, that is probably going in a manuscript I'm gonna be pitching to you guys when I get it done. ;)

[lupagreenwolf.livejournal.com]

....you're going to rewrite the Book of the Dead entirely in limerick form? WE'LL TAKE IT!!!!

[kiya]

Hee hee. It's a humorous BotD rewrite, yes. But that's the first limerick. Most of the spells are longer.

[ryanfirewitch.livejournal.com]

Wow.

Thanks so much for sharing your Kemetic awesomeness.

[tiger-spot.livejournal.com]

conveying sand from east to west

This must be referring to something fairly common, but the directional specificity perplexes me. Something about the source of sand vs. the areas in which it was generally used? Working against prevailing winds?

[kiya]

A different translation I found had something like, "to the east or to the west", suggesting "anywhere".

[tiger-spot.livejournal.com]

Ah! So more of an "and any damn useless thing that may come up" sort of flavor?

[kiya]

"Take my manual labor ... please!"

[jenett]

Heeeeeee! This improves the last bit of a rapidly improving day.

Mummy limerick!

[ivy]

Hahaha, that's brilliant! I now have this terrible mental image of a shabti in a green bowler hat, with a uraeus on the front and a bowling pin sticking up the back. This is the best I could do in fifteen minutes with Google, the grammar is undoubtedly atrocious, it doesn't rhyme, and I am not entirely sure that it scans as I have no idea how to remotely pronounce any of this. But I had to try to write a mummy limerick. Please tell me how badly I screwed it up. [grin]

Sem-nek as met-th sem-nek anset
aha ba-k emma neteru
au am ta xer sexer
nuk sah em ba-f
pet xer ba-k ta xeri tut-k

What I think it says, in English:

Hast thou gone as one dead, thou has gone as one living
Standeth thy soul among the Gods
The eating of bread is according to plan
I am a body with his soul
Heaven hath thy soul, earth hath thy body.

I look forward to hearing what it actually said, if it's substantially different than that. [giggling like mad] This is why Google and I should not be in charge of raising any dead people; just a little knowledge is dangerous.

[luellon.livejournal.com]

I like it! :-)