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Dear David Byrne,

I am fascinated to discover that the words to "The Man Who Liked
Beer" -- conveyed so wonderfully in your new recording -- were first
inspired in the Middle East, in an anonymous work called "The Man Who Was
Tired of Life" or "Debate between a man tired of life and his soul".
In the political atmosphere that haunts us, the piece's origin is especially
intriguing.

An excerpt of the poem ["To whom can I speak today? Gentleness has perished
And the violent man has come down on everyone. Anonymous, The Man Who Was
Tired of Life, ca. 1990 B.C."] appears under the heading "Intermittent
Explosive Disorder" in the book A Primer on Mental Disorders: A Guide for
Educators, Families, and Students by Lee Crandall Park, M.D. (Spring 2001,
Scarecrow Press www.leecrandallparkmd.net/pdfs/Chapter13.pdf )

The book says:

A person with Intermittent Explosive Disorder has a pattern of sudden acts
during which he or she is driven by violent urges to assault or verbally
threaten someone or to destroy property. These acts are much more severe
than could be justified on the basis of any offense by the other person.
..The onset of Intermittent Explosive Disorder can occur from
childhood into the twenties, and the first observed
act may occur without any warning. Little is known about the disorder's
long-term course, but it may be that as a person reaches the fifties and
older, these acts are less likely to occur. Explosive episodes can occur on
a regular basis over many years or may occur only infrequently. As a result
of the acts, people can lose jobs and friends, be divorced, have accidents,
and receive injuries and jail terms.

The Internet has two copies of the ancient Egyptian piece. An annotated
version of "Debate between a man tired of life and his soul" appears at
http://nefertiti.iwebland.com/texts/man_tired_of_life.htm

Excerpt from the version:

To whom can I speak today?
Brothers are evil
And the friends of today unlovable.
To whom can I speak today?
Hearts are rapacious
And everyone takes his neighbour's goods.
[To whom can I speak today?]
Gentleness has perished
And the violent man has come down on everyone.
To whom can I speak today?
Men are contented with evil
And goodness is neglected everywhere.
To whom can I speak today?
He who should enrage a man by his ill deeds,
he makes everyone laugh (by) his wicked wrongdoing.
To whom can I speak today?
Men plunder
And every man robs his neighbour.
To whom can I speak today?
The wrongdoer is an intimate friend
And the brother with whom one used to act is become an enemy.
To whom can I speak today?
None remember the past,
And no one now helps him who used to do (good).
To whom can I speak today?
Brothers are evil,
And men have recourse to strangers for affection.
To whom can I speak today?
Faces are averted,
And every man looks askance at his brethren.
To whom can I speak today?
Hearts are rapacious
And there is no man's heart in which one can trust.
To whom can I speak today?
There are no just persons
And the land is left over to the doers of wrong.
To whom can I speak today?
There is a lack of an intimate friend
And men have recourse to someone unknown in order to complain to him.
To whom can I speak today?
There is no contented man,
And that person who once walked with him no longer exists.
To whom can I speak today?
I am heavy-laden with trouble
Through lack of an intimate friend.
To whom can I speak today?
The wrong which roams the earth,
There is no end to it.

Death is in my sight today
[As when] a sick man becomes well,
Like going out-of-doors after detention.
Death is in my sight today
Like the smell of myrrh,
Like sitting under an awning on a windy day.
Death is in my sight today
Like the perfume of lotuses,
Like sitting on the shore of the Land of Drunkenness.
Death is in my sight today
Like a trodden way,
As when a man returns home from an expedition.
Death is in my sight today
Like the clearing of the sky,
Like a man who ...... for something which he does not know.
Death is in my sight today.
As when a man desires to see home
When he has spent many years in captivity.

Verily, he who is yonder will be a living god,
Averting the ill of him who does it.
Verily, he who is yonder will be one who stands in the Bark of the Sun,
Causing choice things to be given therefrom for the temples.
Verily, he who is yonder will be a sage
Who will not be prevented from appealing to Re when he speaks."

What my soul said to me: "Cast complaint upon the peg, my comrade and
brother; make offering on the brazier and cleave to life, according as I
have said. Desire me here, thrust the West aside, but desire that you may
attain the West when your body goes to earth, that I may alight after you
are weary; then will we make an abode together."
---------------------

An Egypt tourism page http://www.touregypt.net/manwhowastiredoflife.htm
offers another version.

Best wishes from one who greatly appreciates your music and the meanderings
it inspires in the middle of the night,

Lee Hall,
Devon, Pennsylvania.

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