Book 4: Nefernefernefer
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Already early in the morning, I went to Nefernefernefer’s house, but she was still sleeping, and her servants were sleeping and swore at me and threw slops at me when I woke them up. So I sat in the doorway like a beggar until I heard movement and talk in the house, and then I tried once more to enter.
Nefernefernefer lay upon her bed, and her face looked small and white, and her eyes were dim green from wine drinking. “You bore me, Sinuhe,” she said. “You greatly bore me indeed. What is it you want?”
“I want to eat and drink and take pleasure with you,” I replied heavily, “for so you promised.”
“That was yesterday, and today is a new day,” she said, and a slave girl drew off her rumpled dress and oiled and rubbed her limbs. Then she regarded herself in the mirror and painted her face and put on her wig, and taking up the new ornament of pearls and precious stones set in antique gold, she placed it on her forehead.
“The jewel is beautiful,” she said. “It is undoubtedly worth the price, though I am as weary as if I had been wrestling all night.” She yawned and drank some wine from a cup to refresh her body. She also offered wine to me, but I did not care about wine while staring at her.
“So you lied to me yesterday,” I said, “and there was nothing to hinder you from rejoicing with me.” There was no need to say that for in my heart I had known it already yesterday.
“I was mistaken,” she said. “But my monthly time should have come, and I fear you have got me with child, Sinuhe, for I was limp in your arms, and you were so rough with me.” But she smiled and looked at me playfully, and I knew she was only mocking me.
“So your jewel doubtless comes from a royal tomb in Syria,” I said. “Wasn’t that what you told me yesterday.”
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“Ah,” she said softly. “The ornament on my forehead was indeed found beneath the pillow of a Syrian merchant’s bed, but do not let that vex you for he was a paunchy man, as fat as a pig, and he smelled of onions. I have what I sought and do not mean to see him again.”
She took off her wig and ornament and dropped them carelessly on the floor beside the bed and lay down again. Her bare skull was smooth and comely when she revealed it to my eyes, and she stretched herself out and pillowed her head on her clasped hands. “I am weak and weary, Sinuhe,” she said. “You abuse my weariness by thus devouring me with your eyes when I have no strength to prevent you. You should remember that though I live alone, I am not a woman to be despised, and I have to guard my reputation.”
“You know very well that I have no present to give you, for you already possess all that was mine,” I said and bowed my head down to the edge of the bed and caught the perfume of her ointments and her skin. She put out her hand to touch my hair, but then withdrew it quickly and laughed and shook her head.
“How deceitful and treacherous men are,” she said. “You lie to me, too, Sinuhe. I cannot help my fondness for you, for I am weak. You once said my embrace would burn worse than fire, but that is not true. You can touch my body, and it will be cool and sweet to you. You can also caress my breasts with your hands, because they are tired and long for caressing.”
But when I would have taken her in my arms, she pushed me away and sat up, saying in a voice of bitter resentment, “Weak and lonely though I may be, but I will not allow a deceitful man to touch me. You have kept hidden from me that your father Senmut has a house in the poor quarter near the harbour. The house is worth little, but the ground it stands on lies near the quays, and his furniture might fetch something at the market. I might eat and drink and take pleasure with you today if you were to give me this property of yours for no one knows what tomorrow may bring, and I must guard my reputation.”
“My father’s property is not mine,” I said aghast. “You must not ask of me what is not mine to give, Nefernefernefer.”
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