Flowers in the Garden

. . .Thou makest the heart equable.
I do unto thee that which it desireth,
when I am in thine arms.

My chief request is paint for mine eye,
and seeing of thee is light for mine eyes.
I nestle close to thee, because I see thy love,
thou man, for whom most I crave.

How pleasant is mine hour! Might an hour only become for me eternity,when I sleep with thee.
Thou didst lift up mine heart when it was night.

. . . I am unto thee like a garden,
which I have planted with flowers
and with all manner of sweet smelling herbs.

Pleasant is the channel in it, which thine hand hath digged, at the cooling of the north wind.
The beautiful place where I walk about,
when thine hand resteth on mine,
and mine heart is satisfied with joy,
because we walk together.

Shedeh* is it, my hearing of thy voice,
and I live because I hear it. Whenever I see thee,
it is better for me than food and drink.

*The sweetest.

From the Papyrus in Turin. First brought to notice by Maspero in 1886. Ancient Egyptian Poetry and Prose, Adolf Erman. Translated by Aylward M. Blackman, Dover Press 1995 (Original German version, 1923).