I’ve been reading these Egyptian love poems which seem to me to not be just love poems, though I could be wrong. In the 9th poem given from a selection of fragments, the lover enters the river to cross to his “sister” on the far side, a crocodile waiting in the shallows.
The introduction reads, “Love songs or poems are probably found in every culture…Although they appear to be spontaneous outbursts of young people, they are thought to be the deliberate works of literary artists.” And these poems do seem very simple and straightforward, or at least the translation lends them that air. But reading the first I was caught up with thoughts on generations upon generations of individuals singing of nearly the same experience, of the peculiar nature of continuity and rebirth by virtue alone of resemblance of deep emotion and experience, was carried into those thoughts which went on for a while and it occurred to me that it wasn’t by accident, that it was the intention of the poems. “Yes, these are good,” I thought, but was also thinking that these are not just love poems. Each one carried the words abroad the personal, without losing a dramatic intimacy. And it was the 9th poem that made me feel I was right on that, considering the symbolism of the crocodile, revered and feared, Sobek the god of fertility and rebirth, as one who originated the life-bringing Nile. But these are fragments collected from three different sources in a translation by Miriam Lichtheim, so it’s her voice one is hearing also that perhaps lends an air of sameness to them, as if they could be by the same author. And I wonder if the selection presented, the 9 poems, are as given in the book from which they’re taken. If Lichtheim had so ordered them, and if she had a purpose in arranging these poems as she did so that the 9th concerns the crossing of the river and the crocodile.
Beautiful poems. Perhaps Osiris and Isis.
My heart bounds in its place
Like the red fish in its pond
Never mind the seeming semi-erotic nature of the red fish (the red fish makes an appearance in other love poems), I am wondering what is this fish? The breeding of goldfish for enjoyment (though first in temples) comes from China but this gives the idea of a red fish kept for pleasure. Egyptians kept fish but did they have a red fish like the goldfish? I read about the Oxyrhynchus and its importance but I’ve not found any pictures of it as a red fish.
And what is the saam-plant which appears in one of the poems.
Saam-plants here summon us
I do a search and find only that saam in Egyptian means toxic. Oh, wait, I read elsewhere that wormwood is perhaps mentioned in ancient Egyptian writings as saam.
So, I’m a little confused on the saam-plants. Any relationship with the word soma?
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