In this series, books are read from the perspective of water.
Water is constantly present in Mika Waltari’s The Egyptian, originally published in Finnish as Sinuhe egyptiläinen. In the novel, water — especially the Nile — is the source of life, enabling farming, travel and the founding of cities. Sinuhe himself is found as a child in a reed boat, and as an adult he travels along waterways.
Water is drunk, of course, but when dirty it can be deadly. It is used for washing and cooling down. Water clocks are used to measure time. Water floods and recedes, flows and stands still. “Healing water” is sold to wealthy travellers in temple forecourts, and Sinuhe teaches King Burraburiash a trick that makes water appear to turn into blood.
But what makes The Egyptian a book of water, above all, is the way Waltari uses water in his imagery. ___ "Clear were the waters of my youth; sweet was my folly. Bitter is the wine of age, and not the choicest honeycomb can equal th coarse bread of my poverty."
"The artist is more than a reflecting pool. Art indeed may often be nothing but flattering water of a lying mirror, yet the artist is more."
"The river of life was choked and its waters spreading-spreading into a wide like whose surface was fair a mirror to the starry heavens. Thrust a staff into it, and the water was clouded and the bottom but slime and corruption." Above all, water is a symbol of the relief brought by death. "Life is a searing flame, death the dark waters of oblivion."
"Truly, Aziru, life is hot dust, but death is cool water." (Note: this quotation is missing from the English edition; the translation is AI-based.)
"Life is a day of heat, and death perhaps a cool night. Life is a shallow bay, Baketaton, and death the clear, deep water." ___ Similar imagery also appears in Waltari’s other historical novels. Only the landscapes change.
In hot Egypt, the relief of death is cool water; in cold Finland — in Michael the Finn — it is a warm, dark cottage where one can lie down to sleep without fearing being sent back out into the frost.
Mika Waltari’s Sinuhe egyptiläinen was published by WSOY in 1945. The English translation, by Naomi Walford, appeared in 1949. The translation is shorter than the Finnish edition. Unless otherwise stated, all quotations are from Walford’s English translation.