"Reveling in Ancient Verse" Today is one of those days when I am reminded of how charmed my life is. I spent most of the day extracting pieces of poetry from a book of Ancient Egyptian Literature (straight from the walls of the pyramid tombs) and adapting it into script format for our arabesque show next month. The show will tell the story of the Egyptian city, Heliopolis, City of the Sun, from the perspective of a woman (a Heliopolyte, if you will) who has been imprisoned and condemned to death for living a life of freedom, joy, and individuality in a "community" where such behavior is not tolerated. Sound familiar? Of course it does. This was inspired by a wonderful article by a brilliant Muslim man, Asef Bayat, titled "Islam and the Politics of Fun." Bayat is clearly in favor of Muslims having fun, as opposed to...not. The story of Heliopolis is one of a culturally vibrant, celebratory, and magical ancient city, and in our performance we will recreate modern versions of performances that might have taken place there.
I was buzzing with inspiration and my heart nearly burst as I read these beautiful poems, some of them written by Akhenaten! I will put some of them in this post to share. The poems below are from the "Love Songs" segment, and though we didn't include these in the script, I will include them because I think they are sentiments we can all relate to at times. The amazing part is how true they feel after so many thousands of years--they date from the Ramesside Period (ca. 1292-1070 BC)!

-"Why, just now, must you question your heart?"

Why, just, now, must you question your heart?
Is it really the time for discussion?

To her, say I,
take her tight in your arms!
For god's sake, sweet man,
it's me coming at you,

My tunic,
loose at the shoulder!


-"I Love you through the daytimes"

I love you through the daytime,
in the dark,
Through all the long divisions of the night,
those hours
I, spendthrift, waste away alone,
and lie, and turn, awake 'til whitened dawn.

And with the shape of you I people night
and thoughts of hot desire grow live within me.
What magic was it in that voice of yours
to bring such singing vigor to my flesh,
To limbs which now lie listless on my bed without you?

Thus I beseech the darkness:
Where gone, O loving man?
Why gone from her whose love
can pace you, step by step, to your desire?

No loving voice replies,
And I (too well) perceive
how much I am alone.

-From "Songs of the Birdcatcher's Daughter"

My heart remembers how I once loved you
as I sit with my hair half done,
And I'm out running, looking for you,
searching for you with my hair down!

If I ever get back, I'll weave
and intricate hairdo down to my toes.
Love, there's so much time now to finish....