Written by Michael Tweddle, who studied Egyptology from 2022 to 2024, as part of a course unit task to write an Egyptian love poem. Michael, who had not written a poem since he was a teenager, said that rather than focusing on a traditional ‘boy meets girl’ piece, he drew inspiration from his own experience with a school friend in the 70s.

Brother – you overwhelm my heart from afar
I see you, O vigorous youth!
Basking on yonder bank.
The strength of your bejewelled body
Warms and glistens under the rays of Ra
Your shining teeth and swishing tail
Mesmerise me.

Love of you bewitches me.
For you are the most beautiful of all.
You rose from the primeval waters
To glide on the surface
To amble through the marshes
To stalk among the papyrus
And lurk amid lotus flowers.

Your strength widens my heart
The sight of you thrills me
How I wish us to embrace
And bask together in the sun
But fear you may Ammit turn
And devour my heart
Into eternal darkness.

Come to me, let your beauty draw near
Yet the waters are mighty
And you are unaware of my passion
So I struggle to control my own flood.
Perfect youth, there is none like you
I watch you across the watery divide
But Hapy decrees we may not cross
Til its ferocity abates.

How my heart races
Then melancholy overcomes me
O reptilian divinity!
I long to see you rise from the dark water
To swim and splash and spoon til sunset
Our bodies merging in their twisting and turning
The frisson of fighting and frolicking in the shallows.

Be my Sobek and I in turn will be your Khnum
To join with Hapy and rule the river
How I wish I could mould you to love me.
My passion blinds me like the brilliance of Khepri
Though like Amun it is hidden
And unrequited my heart sinks, Atum-like
to the primordial depths of darkness.
Nun

Sobek is associated with the Nile crocodile and is represented either in its animal form or as a human with a crocodile head. Sobek was also associated with pharaonic power, fertility, and military prowess – a fierce and aggressive deity but also one who is protective against the dangers presented by the Nile. His name derives from the causative verb meaning ‘to impregnate’, or, alternatively, that which means ‘to unite’.

Khnum is usually depicted as a ram-headed deity, though sometimes he is depicted as a crocodile-headed god. He was also a protector of the Nile, and became a helper of inundation-bringing Hapy. Khnum was specifically responsible for releasing the right amount of silt into the water during the flooding. Because of this, he became a great potter, and moulded various deities (and humans) on his potter’s wheel. His name means “the builder” or “the moulder”.

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