A Song from Sumer (2,300 BC)

Seshat transports us back 4,300 years to ancient Sumer where a newly translated cuneiform tablet offers a fascinating insight into life and love in Mesopotamia…

When we think of ancient civilisations, it tends to be difficult to relate to them as real people with ordinary lives, loves and considerations, instead our attention is usually taken by the better-documented royal and military activities of the day. In many ways this doesn’t tell us much about how ordinary people lived - in the same way that the lifestyles of the rich and famous don’t necessarily directly relate to the man in the street today.

The tablet Seshat has translated offers us a unique insight into the social and recreational aspect of life in the cradle of civilisation as it was expressed through its music. Just as our modern day music often reflects the experiences of the songwriter, so too did the songs sung over four thousand years ago.


The song speaks of the bittersweet memories of a failed love affair between the writer and a mysterious lady, his ‘goddess’ who he clearly still had feelings for.

The song below has no title, but has been translated from a cuneiform tablet found in a recently discovered site that archaeologists believe is connected to the ancient capital of Assyria, Nineveh – close to what is present day Mosul, on the banks of the Tigris.

Cuneiform script is one of the earliest known forms of written expression and was created by the Sumerians in the late 4th millennium BC. The tablet that has just been translated is thought to date back to around 2,300 BC. Cuneiforms were clay tablets, onto which impressions where made with a blunt reed called a stylus. The impressions left by the stylus were wedge shaped, thus giving rise to the name cuneiform, which means wedge-writing. Tens of thousands of such tablets have been recovered from Sumer, recording everything from Epic battles to, as we are about to see, simple songs. What makes this song unique is that not only does it echo the same sentiments we feel today, but its age, at over 4,000 years old, this is truly a song that has stood the test of time.

"Remember those days of greatness and
wisdom, when a man could speak about his thoughts without
covering himself with the darkest of curtains?
Since the sun faded away I no longer see a place of rest,
even fresh water seems to whisper violence in its own language.
I will never trust a god who doesn't like to be questioned.
Remember those days of healthiness when a man could smile and have a smile back for his joy.
They put the sky inside a vessel and the smiles faded with the last sunset above this land.
I lost my faith in the morning of my childhood, I lost my fear when I saw the end coming, tonight there is only me and the thoughts of you.

Tonight there is only me and the vision of two green jewels, those emerald eyes.
Tonight there is only me and the silver moon, that moonlight skin.
Tonight there is only me and the soft lotus breeze, your smell of queen.

Heat that burns the earth dries the rivers of blood, like an incense of death.
The blind and the fool will live for their emptiness, ah, those hollow spirits.
So strong I am, ah, my strength stands for the thieve of my world, the fool and the blind, they leave no place for me on this earth.
Songs of peace to the new end that just begins.

I am coming home, oh I am coming
The home that was never there
I am coming, the home that never was.
The home that never knew my name, I am coming.
To the place that was never there, home.
Through the door that is never open.
Open sky, my home, guide to the house where my name was forgotten.

You forgot my name, I forgot my heart.

I am coming home, in search of my heart.
The heart calls for me, beats for me, lost among the dead.
I am looking for my heart, the one I cannot feel to find.
I lost my heart, the one who is afraid to find me.
I lost myself, the soul of me, the one I do not remember.
Was it my heart? Was it my fear?

I do not fear, I do not feel.

Tonight there is only me and the vision of two green jewels, those emerald eyes.
Tonight there is only me and the silver moon, that moonlight skin.
Tonight there is only me and the soft lotus breeze, your smell of queen.

Tonight there is only me and the promise that my name will not be spoken.
Tonight there is only me and the promise that your eyes will never wish to find me.
Tonight there is only me and the promise that I will never touch your skin.
Tonight there is only me and the promise that I will never return home.

Sleep oh goddess sleep.
You, who will never wonder where I am.

Sleep oh Goddess sleep.
I pray for you.
For you never to remember.

Sleep oh Goddess; I sleep
Lost in the vision of two green jewels, those emerald eyes.
Upon the silver moon, that moonlight skin.
Following the soft lotus breeze, your smell of queen."

This song was translated by Seshat and is published exclusively on ThothWeb.

http://www.thothweb.com/article2753.html