Chapter III - Love-songs

More numerous than the folk-songs are the love-songs handed down to us in Egyptian texts. Later Oriental literature would in itself lead us to the inference that their number must have been great. We need think only of the tales in the “Arabian Nights,”

where the lover has command of such a fine flow of verses, not to speak of many similar products of Arabian poetry which have come to us from other directions. The Egyptian songs present a parallel to these other Eastern works in the character of the love of which they treat. It is only in exceptional cases a sentimental feeling; as a rule, it is a passion finding for itself intense and realistic utterance. Three collections of love-songs of about 1200 B.C. have now been discovered. The most comprehensive, containing also legends and tales, is in a papyrus in the British Museum; others are in a papyrus at Turin, and on a potsherd in the museum of Gizeh, the intent of which was first recognised by Spiegel-berg.

To these must be added a stela in the Louvre, on which the praise of a beautiful woman, a queen of about 700 B.C., is sung as follows :

“The sweet one, sweet in love; the sweet one, sweet in love in the presence of the king; the sweet one, sweet m love before all men ; the beloved before all women; the king’s daughter who is sweet in love. The fairest among women, a maid whose like none has seen. Blacker is her hair than the darkness of night, blacker than the beriies of the blackberry bush (?). Harder are her teeth (?) than the flints on the sickle. A wreath of flowers is each of her breasts, close nestling on her arms.”

The text unfortunately breaks off here and gives us no further light on the ancient poet’s ideal of feminine beauty, a question for the answering of which literary material is wanting. This is the more to be regretted as the plastic representations show that in this respect the taste of the ancient Egyptian was in many points a contrast to that of his modern descendant, recalling rather the conceptions of the Arab of the desert. It is from representations of goddesses and to some extent of queens that such conclusions may be drawn, for in this higher class of work the artist would most probably strive to idealise his models. During the whole classical period of Egyptian history, with few exceptions (such, for example, as the reign of that great innovator, Amenophis IV.), the ideal alike for the male and the female body was a slender and but slightly developed form. Under the Ethiopian rule, and dunng the Ptolemaic period in Egypt itself, we find for the first time that the goddesses are represented with plump and well-developed outlines.

Examination of the mummies shows that the earlier ideal was based upon actual facts, and that in ancient Egypt slender, sinewy forms distinguished both men and women. Intermarriage with other races and harem life may have combined in later times to alter the physical type, and with it to change also the ideal of beauty.

A few extracts from the collections will serve to show the nature of the love-songs; their likeness and unlikeness in thought and expression to the poetry of other nations will at once be apparent. The first has a far-off resemblance to the theme of Hero and Leander:

1. “The kisses of my beloved are on the other bank of the river; a branch of the stream floweth between us, a crocodile lurketh on the sand-bank. But I step down into the water and plunge into the flood. My courage is great in the waters, the waves are as solid ground under my feet. Love of her lendeth me strength. Ah ! She hath given me a spell for the waters.”

2. “When I kiss her, and her lips are open, then need I not ale to inspire me. When the time is come to make ready the couch, oh servant! then say I unto thee : ‘ Lay fine linen between her limbs, a bed for her of royal linen; give heed to the white embroidered linen, besprinkled with the finest oil.’”

3. “Oh ! were I but her negress, following her footsteps. Ah ! Then should I joy in seeing the forms of all her limbs.”

4. “JvOve to thee filleth my inmost being, as [wine] pervadeth water, as fragrance pervadeth resin, as sap mingleth itself [with liquid . And thou, thou has-tenest to see thy beloved as the steed rusheth to the field of battle. Heaven hath formed her love, as the flame taketh hold [on the straw] and [his longing] like unto the hawk as he swoopeth down (?)”

5. “Is not my heart well inclined unto thy love? . . . Never shall I be severed from love even though one should beat me ... to Syria with sticks and cudgels, to Nubia with rods of the palm tree, to the mountain land with whips, to the plain with switches. Never will I give ear unto their counsel that I should give up my heart’s desire.”

6. “I will lay me down in my shelter, sick shall I be with grief. Oh! here come my neighbours to care for me. There cometh iny beloved with them ; she putteth the physicians to scorn, for she knoweth my malady.”

7. “Near the country house of my beloved, where the water tank lieth in the midst of her land, the door openeth, the bolt springeth open, my love is wroth. Oh! were I made her porter, I should cause her to be wrathful with me. Then, when I did but hear her voice, the voice of her anger, a child should I be for fear.”

8. “Thou beautiful one ! My heart longeth to make ready the food for thee, as thy house mistress, my arm should rest on thy arm. If thou turnedst away thy caresses then would my heart say within me in my beseeching: ‘ My dear (friend) is wanting to me this night, and thus am I like one sojourning in the grave.’ For art thou not to me health and life ? Thy coming lilleth with joy in thy prosperity the heart that hath sought thee.”

9. “The voice of the dove is calling; it sayeth : ‘ The earth is bright, where is my way ? ’ Thou bird, thou art calling to me. But I, I have found my beloved on his couch. My heart is rejoiced above all measure, and each of us sayeth : ‘ I will not part from thee.’ My hand is in thy hand. I walk and am with thee in each beautiful place, thou madest me the first of the fair maidens, thou hast not grieved my heart.”

Among the love-songs in the London collection is one which makes a singular impression in such an assoc ation,

“The song placed in the tomb-temple of the departed King Antef, which is written there before the singer with the harp.”

Thus it runs :

“It is a command of the gracious ruler {i.e., the god Osiris), a good decree, that the (human) body van-isheth in decay, whilst other things endure, remaining from the days of our forefathers. The gods that were aforetime now rest in their tombs; great dignitaries and glorious spirits are likewise buried in their graves.

Those who have built for themselves tomb-temples have no abiding-place more. Lo ! their deeds what are they (l>ecome)? I heard the words of Imhetep and of Horduduf, whose wise words are praised beyond those of others. Where is their place and that which was theirs ? Their walls are destroyed, their place standeth no longer, but is as if it had never been.

No man cometh thence to portray their form, to describe their surroundings, to move our heart to go to the place whence they departed. Calm thine heart by causing thy heart to bear up against it (against the thought of the transitory nature of all that is earthly). Follow thy heart’s desire while still thou remainest (in life)!

Pour perfume on thy head; let thy garment be of finest linen, anointed with the true most wondrous substances among things divine. Do that which is pleasing to thee more than thou didst aforetime; let not thy heart be weary. Follow thy heart’s desire and that which is well pleasing in thine eyes.

Arrange thine affairs on earth after the will of thy heart, until to thee cometh that day of lamentation on which that god whose heart standeth still (i.e., Osiris) heareth not their wail (of the dying). Weeping obtaineth not the heart (the life) of a man who dwelleth in the grave. On! live out a joyful day; rest not therein. Lo! it hath not been granted to man to take away with him his belongings. Lo! there is none who hath gone hence and returned hither.”