Cloth of Ithaca or Ithika is a Homeric reference as well or at least Ithaca is. This continues to embed this mass of material in the Egyptian Milieu. It also make this piece pre Alexandrian as well as is the bulk of this material so far.
These are noted love songs. It is fascinating that they are preserved.
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CHAPTER THIRTY
THE SONGS OF TANTALIP
Two
1 am one on whom the fates smile. My sister in
love is the light of my life. She is the promise of love enduring, the brazier of a love undying, the hope of joy
throughout eternity. The night becomes silent, for its fragrance is as nothing to her sweetness. The brightness of
the dawn fades before her loveliness and the dove hangs its head before her virtue.
She breathes gently and caresses with her
glance. Her skin exudes a sweet perfume and her hair is proud and confident, as becomes the guardian of secret
mysteries of charm and delight.
She is graceful, her robes are not stiffened,
they are not of royal or white linen and caress her softly. Her sandals are daintily bedecked with beads and her lovely
curls are clasped in a circlet of blue and red stones. Her bosom is covered with cloth of Ithika and held by a
clasp of silver.
She flutters her fan with delicacy and grace.
Her speech is gentle as the cool breeze. Her eyes sparkle as the moonlit waters, their deep pools enhanced with
tinges of green and purple delicately applied.
Men say, "Who is she who walks with
graceful steps and lively air? The blush of the blood rose is on her cheeks, the perfiime of morning sweetness breathes from
her parted lips. High-spirited joy tempered with innocence and modesty sparkles in her eyes. Her voice tinkles
like sweetly rippling waters, and from the gay cheerfiilness of her tender heart she gladdens all nature with
her gentle singing".
I say, "She is mine, my wife in
waiting", and confidently know all her secret charms are for me alone. I
shall be lifted in joy above all men or cast into the
abyss of despair. I wonder about her in the manner of men and rebuke myself for my thoughts. Could such beauty ever
betray love?
I inhale the sweet breezes which once filled her
mouth, and each day my thoughts recall her beauty. My heart longs for the sweetness of her lovely voice,
fresh as the cool north wind. Her love sfrengthens my limbs, my heart rises from its place. Let me clasp once
more the delicate hands that hold my heart. Let me feel her once again in warm embrace. I hear her name whispered
on the cool nightwind, and never do I hear it without my spirit responding.
0 my Lord God, who led me in the conquest, who
directed my right arm in battle and chastened my pride in victory, help me now in the time of peace. Help
me when the turmoil is over. I am well skilled in the ways of war, but am a ready victim for the snares and
wiles of peaceful life.
Give to me my heart's desire, to be the mother
of my children and the companion of my life. 1 am burnt with passion and need the cool quenching waters of
true love. My body cries out in the night towards one so distant from me. You made me as men are made, you gave
me the craving, now grant me relief
1 am alone and one when I should be two. I speak
and none answers, I eat and my food lacks flavour, I thirst and none brings water. I am a sword unused, let the
sword not rust in the sheath.
I await my other self, my right side desires
union with my left, I wait and know that the waiting is not in vain. I await her coming, she is on her way, as she was
from me beginning of time. She draws near and my spirit leaps from its seat and dances from the body to meet
her. I see her, she is mine, fashioned for me by the ages, her body is made for mine and mine for hers. We are
betrothed by eternity.
I will keep her always for myself, 1 will never
let her go hungry or let her live to lament her fate. We will share seven lives together and in each I will seek her
anew.
Man is two, the life force and the life
material. Love holds all things together and no man can know the joys of love who shares the secret charms of his beloved
with another.
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