NPM #20 – My heart flutters hastily

My heart flutters hastily,

When I think of my love of you;

It lets me not act sensibly,

It leaps from its place.

It lets me not put on a dress,

Nor wrap my scarf around me;

I put no paint upon my eyes,

I’m even not anointed.

“Don’t wait, go there,” says it to me,

As often as I think of him;

My heart, don’t act so stupidly,

Why do you play the fool?

Sit still, the brother comes to you,

And many eyes as well.

Let not the people say of me:

“A woman fallen through love!”

Be steady when you think of him,

My heart, do not flutter!

-4th stanza Chester Beatty I papyrus