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I THIS sarcophagus contained the body | |
| Of Uresh-Nai, priestess to the goddess Mut, | |
| Mother of All— . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | |
II The priestess has passed into her tomb. | |
| The stone has taken up her spirit! | 5 |
| Granite over flesh: who will deny | |
| Its advantages? | |
| |
| Your death?—water | |
| Spilled upon the ground— | |
| Though water will mount again into rose-leaves— | 10 |
| But you?—would hold life still, | |
| Even as a memory, when it is over. | |
| Benevolence is rare. | |
| |
| Climb about this sarcophagus, read | |
| What is writ for you in these figures, | 15 |
| Hard as the granite that has held them | |
| With so soft a hand the while | |
| Your own flesh has been fifty times | |
| Through the guts of oxen—read! | |
| |
| “The rose-tree will have its donor | 20 |
| Even though he give stingily. | |
| The gift of some endures | |
| Ten years, the gift of some twenty, | |
| And the gift of some for the time a | |
| Great house rots and is torn down. | 25 |
| Some give for a thousand years to men of | |
| One country, some for a thousand | |
| To all men, and some few to all men | |
| While granite holds an edge against | |
The weather.
“Judge then of love!” | 30 |
| |
III “My flesh is turned to stone. I | |
| Have endured my summer. The flurry | |
| Of falling petals is ended. I was | |
| Well desired and fully caressed | |
| By many lovers, but my flesh | 35 |
| Withered swiftly and my heart was | |
| Never satisfied. Lay your hands | |
| Upon the granite as a lover lays his | |
| Hand upon the thigh and upon the | |
| Round breasts of her who is | 40 |
| Beside him; for now I will not wither, | |
| Now I have thrown off secrecy, now | |
| I have walked naked into the street, | |
| Now I have scattered my heavy beauty | |
| In the open market. | 45 |
| |
| “Here I am with head high and a | |
| Burning heart eagerly awaiting | |
| Your caresses, whoever it may be, | |
| For granite is not harder than | |
| My love is open, runs loose among you! | 50 |
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| “I arrogant against death! I | |
| Who have endured! I worn against | |
| The years!” | |
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