Old age is here, high age has arrived,
Feebleness comes, weakness grows,
Childlike one sleeps, all day.
Eyes are dim, ears are deaf,
Strength is waning, one is weary,
The mouth is silenced, speaks not,
The heart, void, recalls not the past.
The bones ache throughout.
Good has become evil, all taste is gone.
What age does to people is bad i n every respect.
The nose, clogged, cannot breath,
Painful are standing and sitting.

Source: Rosalind M. and Jac. J. Janssen, Growing Up in Ancient Egypt (London: Rubicon Press, 1990), p. 5.