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Enkidu and Shamhat
He grazed on grasses with the gazelles.
He had a man's arms and the long hair of a girl.
He drank from the same water as the cows and goats
and bathed with the hippos at the waterhole.
Now he raised his eyes from the spray and saw Shamhat.
The air shook from his eyes to hers,
time slowed, the air became mere temperature,
the animals merged into the distant background.
Her robe slipped from her legs as she dipped her knee,
it parted at her round breasts as she leant forward.
She knew how to draw him to her.
She felt the fine line of his jaw with her finger,
her hand stroked down his chest, then dived lower.
He fell onto her and she took his energy.
For six days and seven nights his flesh burnt with fire
then he went to wash off his sweat.
The gazelles lifted their horns and cantered away
but now his legs were too tired to follow them.
Shamhat whispered to him: Come, let me take you
to Uruk, to the city, the temple, the lute and the lyre.
This poem is inspired by the 'Epic of Gilgamesh' from the early Mesopotamian period. |
