On the side of the coffin of Inpuhotep
Are painted a pair of magical eyes,
The eyes of the sky god, Horus.
Inside the swaddled mummy sideways lies
Gazing eastwards through those eyes
To see each dawn the sun god rise
Born in the morning of the womb of Nut
To sail the sky in the Boat of Ra,
the Barque of Millions of Years.
Above the painted eyes in hieroglyphs
It tells of the offering of the King
To the green-faced god of the netherworld,
Great god, Osiris, Lord of Djedu, and Abydos,
A thousand loaves, a thousand beers,
Roasted ox and fattened fowl, all things
Good and all things pure, clean linen,
Alabaster given in the name of the justified one
Whose gaze is fixed on the rising sun
For all the days of eternity.
11/10/06
Note: Many coffins in ancient Egypt’s Middle Kingdom period had two eyes painted
at the head end of the coffin’s eastern side. The mummy was placed sideways so that its head was in a position behind the coffin’s painted eyes where it could ‘look’ out through them to see the sun rise in the east and also the offerings of food and drink brought for the sustenance of its ‘Ka’ or spiritual persona.
Pete Crowther
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/inpuhotep-of-thebes/
