A Love Poem From Ancient Kemet

how beautiful is your beloved, the one adored of your heart, when she has returned from the meadow! my beloved, my darling, my heart longs to you love for that is all that you created! I say to you: See what happened! I came ready to trap birds, snare in one hand, my cage in the other together with my mat. all the birds of the land Punt have descended on Kemet, anointed with myrrh. the first to come takes my bait. its fragrance comes from Punt, its claws full of balm. my heart desires you let us release it together I am with you, I alone, to let you hear the sound of my call, for my lovely myrrh-anointed one. My god, my lotus The north wind blows How pleasant it is to go to the river. My heart longs to go down to bathe before you, that I may show you my beauty in a tunic of the finest royal linen, drenched in fragrant oils, my hair plaited in reeds. I'd go down to the water with you, and come out to you carrying a red fish, which feels just right in my fingers. I'd set it before you, while gazing at your beauty. O my hero, my beloved, come and see me! am I not here with you? then why have you set your heart to leave? why don't you embrace me? has my deed come back upon me? if you seek to caress my thighs is it because you are thinking of food that you would go away? or because you are a slave to your belly? is it because you care about clothes? well, I have a bedsheet! is it because you are hungry that you would leave? then take my breasts that their gift may flow forth to you. better a day in the embrace of my beloved than thousands on thousands anywhere else!