Singular Societies

O King, my lord, I draw nigh to life's end,
To me the frailities of life have come.
And second childhood... Ah! the old lie down
Each day is suffering; the vision fails,
Ears become deaf and strength declines apace.
The mind is ill at ease.... An old man's tongue
has naught to say because his thoughts have fled,
And he forgets the day that has gone past....
Meanwhile his body aches in every bone;
The sweet seems bitter, for taste is lost.
Ah! such are the afflictions of old age,
which work for evil... Fitful and weak
his breath becomes, standing or lying down.

--Ancient Egyptian poem