The Dialogue of Pessimism

I promise I don't go around reading translations of late Akkadian literature-but my brother-in-law does. He gave me a copy of some pages he'd run off for a class he's teaching at Harding Grad School.

One of the sections from the period 1000 to 300 B.C.E. is called The Dialogue of Pessimism, and it's neat. "This satrical dialogue sets a master proposing various undertakings, for which his servant offers facile encouragements. When the master changes his mind and asserts the opposite, the servant is equally ready with facile discouragements. The master lapses into despair at the futility of life, and, when he finally asks what the best course for him to follow might be, the slave suggests suicide."

The part that grabbed me was this:

"Servant, listen to me." "Yes, master, yes." "I will fall in love with a woman." "So, fall in love, master, fall in love. The man who falls in love with a woman forgets sorrow and care." "No, servant, I will certainly not fall in love with a woman." "Do not fall in love, master, do not fall in love. A woman is a pitfall, a pitfall, a hole, a ditch, a woman is a sharp iron dagger that slashes a man's throat."

And I'm just now finding this out?!? Where was late Akkadian literature when I needed it?