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Ancient Poetry

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Malik View Drop Down
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  Quote Malik Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Ancient Poetry
    Posted: 24-Feb-2007 at 02:10
I'm really interested in ancient poetry(love/romance poetry) of all sorts (egyptian,roman,iranian).
Can somebody name a few ancient poets or post some ancient poems that they like?


Edited by Malik - 24-Feb-2007 at 02:11
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  Quote pekau Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16-Mar-2007 at 13:25
That's a hard call, since much of the literature were completely destroyed due to time, the material and the fact that very few could write. And besides, much of the poem's topic was not about romance, but the struggle, hardship, and religion.
     
   
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  Quote Don Quixote Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21-Mar-2012 at 02:06
EGYPTAIN LOVE POEM (1)
I hear thy voice, O turtle dove-
The dawn is all aglow-
Weary am I with love, with love,
Oh, whither shall I go?

Not so, O beauteous bird above,
Is joy to be denied....
For I have found my dear, my love;
And I am by his side.

We wander forth, and hand in hand
Through flowery ways we go-
I am the fairest in the land,
For he has called me so.
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  Quote Don Quixote Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22-Mar-2012 at 04:31
An Ancient Egyptian poem
http://www.mauicroquetclub.org/gallery/things/EgyptianArt.jpg

Come, my Soul, swim to me!
The water is deep in my love
Which carries me to you.
 
We are in the midst of the stream,
I clasp the flowers to my breast
Which is naked and drips with water.
But the moon makes them bloom like the lotus.
 
I give you my flowers
because they are beautiful,
And you are holding my hand
In the middle of the water.

After J.M.Kellner Under the protection of Hathor



Edited by Don Quixote - 22-Mar-2012 at 04:34
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  Quote Don Quixote Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22-Mar-2012 at 22:26
EGYPTAIN LOVE POEM (2)
With sickness faint and weary
All day in bed I'll lie;
My friends will gather near me
And she'll with them come nigh.
She'll put to shame the doctors
Who'll ponder over me,
For she alone, my loved one,
Knows well my malady.
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  Quote Don Quixote Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24-Mar-2012 at 14:27
Ancient Egyptian poem:
Extract from a 3,000 year-old papyrus.

She is one girl, there is no one like her.
She is more beautiful than any other.

Look, she is like a star goddess arising

at the beginning of a happy new year;

brilliantly white, bright skinned;

with beautiful eyes for looking,

with sweet lips for speaking;

she has not one phrase too many.

With a long neck and white breast,

her hair of genuine lapis lazuli;

her arm more brilliant than gold;

her fingers like lotus flowers,

with heavy buttocks and girt waist.

Her thighs offer her beauty,

with a brisk step she treads on ground.

She has captured my heart in her embrace.

She makes all men turn their necks

to look at her.

One looks at her passing by,
this one, the unique one.



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  Quote Don Quixote Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25-Mar-2012 at 22:44
An Ancient Egyptian poem

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.

I wish I were the unguent, O woman,

that I could annoit you.

And the band around your breasts,

and the beads around your neck.

I wish I were your sandal

that you would step on me!

(Not sure about that last sentence!)

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  Quote Don Quixote Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27-Mar-2012 at 01:30
Ancient Egyptian poem
O my beautiful one,
I wish I were part of your affairs, like a wife.

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?

How joyful is your good health

for the heart that seeks you!


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  Quote Don Quixote Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30-Mar-2012 at 02:11
An Ancient Egyptian poem
OLD AGE
A vizer feels the burden of his years and lamants his fate to Pharaoh

O King, my lord, I draw nigh to life's end,
To me the frailities of life have come.
And second childhood... Ah! the old lie down
Each day is suffering; the vision fails,
Ears become deaf and strength declines apace.
The mind is ill at ease.... An old man's tongue
has naught to say because his thoughts have fled,
And he forgets the day that has gone past....
Meanwhile his body aches in every bone;
The sweet seems bitter, for taste is lost.
Ah! such are the afflictions of old age,
which work for evil... Fitful and weak
his breath becomes, standing or lying down.

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  Quote Don Quixote Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10-Apr-2012 at 03:06
An Ancient Egyptian poem:
BELOVED COUNTRY
Over three thousand years ago an Egyptian once wrote;


Its fields are full of good things and it has provision for every day
Its granaries overflow, they reach the sky.
Its ponds are full of fishes and its lakes of birds.
Its fields are green with grass and its banks bear dates.
He who lives there is happy,
And the poor man is like the great elsewhere.


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  Quote Don Quixote Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09-May-2012 at 01:30
Ancient Babylonian poem:
Some poet of Erech, lamenting this destruction, wrote to his lost goddess Nana a plea which has been preserved to us:

Until when, oh lady,
Shall the ungodly enemy ravage thy land?
In thy queen city, Erech, Destruction is complete.
In Eulbar, thy temple, Blood has flowed as water.
 O'er all thy lands the foe has poured out flame;
It hangs over them like smoke.

Oh lady, it is hard for me
To bend my neck to the yoke of misfortune!
Oh lady, thou hast let me suffer,
Thou hast plunged me in sorrow!

The mighty evil foe
Broke me as a reed;
I know not what to resolve;
I trust not in myself.
Like a thicket of waving reeds
I moan low, day and night.
I bow my head before thee!
I am thy servant!



Edited by Don Quixote - 09-May-2012 at 01:31
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  Quote Bethor Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 31-Aug-2012 at 11:16
Originally posted by Don Quixote

An Ancient Egyptian poem:
BELOVED COUNTRY
Over three thousand years ago an Egyptian once wrote;


Its fields are full of good things and it has provision for every day
Its granaries overflow, they reach the sky.
Its ponds are full of fishes and its lakes of birds.
Its fields are green with grass and its banks bear dates.
He who lives there is happy,
And the poor man is like the great elsewhere.



Hi, 

I am interested in this poem; do you have any more background information on where this came from, and who translated it?
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  Quote Don Quixote Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 31-Aug-2012 at 11:45
Lamentably I don't , I got it from this site http://www.ancientnile.co.uk/poems.php
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  Quote Don Quixote Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19-Sep-2012 at 14:38
A Sumerian one

Sister Without Peer

My one, the sister without peer,

The handsomest of all!

She looks like the rising morning star

At the start of a happy year.

Shining bright, fair of skin,

Lovely the look of her eyes,

Sweet the speech of her lips,

She has not a word too much.

Upright neck, shining breast,

Hair true lapis lazuli;

Arms surpassing gold,

Fingers like lotus buds.

Heavy thighs, narrow waist,

Her legs parade her beauty;

With graceful step she treads the ground,

Captures my heart by her movements.

She causes all men's necks

To turn about to see her;

Joy has he whom she embraces,

He is like the first of men!

When she steps outside she seems

Like that the Sun!

First Stanza, Beginning of the sayings of the great happiness, from Papyrus Chester Beatty I


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