Egyptian Love Poem

Egyptian scribes were poets as well as clerks and bureaucrats.

Egyptians did not use the skills of reading and writing solely in business, government, and religion. Stories, poems, and humorous tales were also recorded. Here is a love poem that has survived:

Last Night Made It Seven, My Eyes Missed My Kitten

"Last night made it seven, my eyes missed my kitten --
I'm a tottering outpost invaded by sickness,
Love-lethargy leaves my limbs logy,
I stagger about with a low-grade fever,
Sometimes I drift into reverie...
sometimes I don't even remember my name...

"Let them call in the whole crew of specialists,
my heart will not tick to their remedies,
Or let reader-priests come mumbling their gibberish --
all their spells and charms, a dead end too.
Not one can finger the sources of my symptoms! --
(she's the soft devil who drugged me).

"But if someone would say, 'There's a lady here, waiting' --
hear that, and you'd see me take heart in a hurry!
(her name would perk up my members) --
Or only her messengers come and going:
their running would quicken my pulse!

"Why, that girl's better than any prescription,
more to me than the Pharmacopoeia --
My own secret Hathor Home Remedy?--
Her slipping into my room from the road!
(have her examine me, then watch my energy!)

"And just let her look me full in the eye,
and every bit of my body is back in its prime.
At the sound her voice my heart leaps to her tune,
And then when I kiss her, feel her length breast to thigh,
Love's evil spirits fly clean from my system --
God, what a girl, what a woman!...

"And that bitch has been gone for a week!"