C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

Reproaches to a Dissipated Student

XIXth Dynasty

Revised from the German of Professor Adolf Erman’s translation

THEY tell me that thou forsakest books,

And givest thyself up to pleasure.

Thou goest from street to street;

Every evening the smell of beer,

The smell of beer, frightens people away from thee,

It bringeth thy soul to ruin.

Thou art like a broken helm,

That obeyeth on neither side.

Thou art as a shrine without its god,

As a house without bread.

Thou art met climbing the walls,

And breaking through the paling:

People flee from thee,

Thou strikest them until they are wounded.

Oh that thou didst know that wine is an abomination,

And that thou wouldst forswear the Shedeh drink!

That thou wouldst not put cool drinks within thy heart,

That thou wouldst forget the Tenreku.

But now thou art taught to sing to the flute,

To recite [?] to the pipe,

To intone to the lyre,

To sing to the harp,

[and generally to lead a life of dissipation.]