Tuesday, April 28, 2026 · 天火 · tianmu.org
Laments
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Texts
A Balag — In the City, in the Wide SquareA Neo-Assyrian balaĝ lament — the great liturgical genre of Mesopotamian temple worship — mourning the destruction of Isin by Enlil. The goddess of the city speaks, the divine epithets are invoked, and the people cry out in the streets. 160 lines, bilingual. From Ashurbanipal's library at Nineveh.A Lamentation to EnlilA bilingual Sumerian-Akkadian lamentation to Enlil from the Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin. The entire pantheon pleads with the king of the gods to end his destruction and return to his cities.A Penitential PsalmAn Akkadian penitential psalm from the library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh -- a confessional prayer by a person who has lost everything and does not know what they did wrong. Cast into metaphorical seas, abandoned by family and friends, clothed in sin like a garment, they beg the assembly of the gods for purification: may the seven winds carry off my sighing, may the bird carry my evil to heaven, may the fish bear my distress down the river. First free English translation. From tablet K.254 in the British Museum. Translated from the Akkadian by the New Tianmu Anglican Church.An Ershemma to IshtarA complete Neo-Assyrian eršemma — a liturgical lament — to Ishtar, the planet Venus. The goddess is fire and wolf and lioness, guide of oracles, opener of heaven's bolt. Then she speaks in her own voice: I am the goddess of evening, I am the goddess of dawn. Then the penitent calls her by seven temple names to calm her anger. From a tablet in the library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh. Translated from Akkadian by the New Tianmu Anglican Church.The Curse of AgadeThe Sumerian poem of divine vengeance on the Akkadian Empire. Naram-Sin desecrates the Ekur, Enlil unleashes the Gutians, and the gods curse Agade to eternal ruin. Good Works Translation from Sumerian, c. 2000 BCE.The Death of Ur-NammaA Sumerian lament for Ur-Namma, first king of the Ur III dynasty — his sudden death, his descent bearing gifts to every power of the underworld, his enthronement beside Gilgamesh, and his grief for the unfinished wall of Ur.The Lament for the Destruction of EriduA Sumerian city lament (c. 2000 BCE) mourning the storm-destruction of Eridu — oldest city of the gods and home of Enki's E-abzu. Father Enki weeps outside his ruined shrine. Damgalnuna departs like a bird. Isimud the minister abandons his post. The enemy enters. Then the consolation: as Enlil and Nanna restored their cities, Enki too shall return.The Lament for the Destruction of NippurOne of the five canonical Sumerian city laments, mourning the destruction and abandonment of Nippur by its gods, and celebrating the restoration of the city under Ishme-Dagan of Isin. Composed c. 1900–1800 BCE.The Lament for the Destruction of Sumer and UrA Sumerian city lament mourning the fall of the Third Dynasty of Ur, structured as a litany of divine abandonment and the cry of every city in the land.The Lament for the Destruction of UrA complete Sumerian balag-lament mourning the fall of Ur III to the Elamites and Amorites, c. 2004 BCE. The city's patron Nanna and his wife Ningal weep as every god abandons Sumer, the storm of Enlil destroys the land, and Ningal wanders homeless outside her ruined city — before the final prayer for restoration.The Lament for the Destruction of UrukA Sumerian city lament (c. 2000 BCE) mourning the storm-destruction of Uruk — Inanna's city, oldest inhabited urban center in the world. The most fragmentary of the five canonical City Laments: only Kiruguus 1–2 and Kirugu 12 survive in readable form. The closing prayer is addressed to Inanna for king Ishme-Dagan of Isin.The Night WeepingA bilingual eršema — a ritual lament in the Emesal women's dialect of Sumerian, with Akkadian glosses — from the Neo-Assyrian copy K.2442. A goddess of Lagash mourns through the night for her destroyed city, temple, fold, and sheepfold. First English translation.