A Poem from Ancient Egypt

translated by John L. Foster

"I think I'll go home and lie very still,
Feigning terminal illness.
Then the neighbors will all troop over to stare,
My love, perhaps, among them.
How she'll smile while the specialists
Snarl in their teeth!--
She perfectly well knows what ails me."

[Steve Argyle sent this one over with the following note: "I'm helping Katy with her World Literature homework tonight and she shared a delightful poem from the 12th Century B.C. It was so good I just had to send it along to you. Who would have thought the staid, ritual-bound Egyptians could have written such gentle, yet penetrating verse?"]