The Flower Song
Anon
Egypt, c1400 BCE (abridged)
To hear your voice is pomegranate wine to me.
I draw life from hearing it.
Could I see you with every glance,
It would be better for me than to eat or to drink.
If I could just be the washerwoman doing her laundry for one month only,
I would be faithful to pick up the bundles,
Sturdy to beat clean the heavy linens
But gentle to touch those fine-spun things lying closest the body I love.
And I'd say, standing there tall in the shallows:
Look at my fish, love, how it lies in my hand
How my fingers caress it, slip down its sides
But then I'd say softer, eyes bright with your seeing:
A gift, love. No words. Come closer and look.
It's all me.
I wish I were your mirror so that you always looked at me.
I wish I were your garment so that you would always wear me.
I wish I were the water that washes your body.
And the band around your breasts, and the beads around your neck.
Oh, my beautiful one. I wish I were part of your life.
With your hand in mine, your love would be returned.
I implore my heart, if my true love stays away tonight,
I shall be like someone already in the grave.
Are you not my health… And my life?
He Waters His Horse By A Breach in the Long Wall
Anon
China, c120 BCE
Green, so green is the river grass.
And I can’t stop thinking of that far road.
Can’t bear thinking of that far road.
Last night I saw him in my dream.
Dreamed him standing by my side.
Suddenly I was in another land.
Another land and a different century.
I tossed and turned and woke apart.
The gaunt mulberry knows the sky’s wind and waters of the sea know cold oblivion.
When travellers return in joy not one has a word for me.
From a far land a traveller came and left me two carp.
I asked my children to cook the fish and inside they found a silk letter.
I knelt long and read the letter.
What did that letter say?
It started, ‘try to eat.’
And ended, ‘I miss you. Always.’
My Heart Flutters Hastily
Anon
Mesopotamia, c1500 BCE
My heart flutters hastily,
When I think of my love of you;
It lets me not act sensibly, It leaps from its place.
It lets me not put on a dress, Nor wrap my scarf around me;
I put no paint upon my eyes,
I’m not even anointed.
“Don’t wait, go there,” says it to me, as often as I think of him;
My heart, don’t act so stupidly, Why do you play the fool?
Sit still, his brother comes to you, and many eyes as well.
Let not the people say of me: “A woman fallen through love!” Be steady when you think of him.
My heart, do not flutter!
Take Care With How You Look
From Ars Amarosa by Ovid
Italy, 1st century BCE (abridged)
I’ll start with how you look.
Good wine comes from vines that are looked after; tall crops stand in cultivated soil.
Beauty’s a gift of the gods: how many can boast it?
If girls of old didn’t cultivate their bodies in that way... well they had no cultivated men in those days.
There was crude simplicity before: now Rome is golden, and owns the vast wealth of the conquered world. Look what the Capitol is now, and what it was.
Let others praise ancient times.
I am glad I was born in these.
Salutation to the Dawn
By Kālidāsa (attributed)
India, c400 BCE
Look to this day!
For it is life, the very life of life.
In its brief course lie all the verities and realities of your existence.
The bliss of growth.
The glory of action.
The splendour of achievement.
For yesterday is but a dream,
And tomorrow is only a vision.
But today, well lived, makes every yesterday a dream of happiness.
And every tomorrow
A vision of hope.